Writing a monthly article concerning the activities of a local community gardening group should be reasonably straightforward. All you have to do is say about where has been weeded, what has been planted, what has been pruned and how much has been tidied up to make the sector look nice for residents and visitors to Camposol. However, as we all know, this year has been different to put it mildly.
The start of the year wasn’t brilliant as regards weather, but the Work Party (B Clean only has one and very small which sounds like a line from a song I recall…) got on with things and the committee met up each month to try and work out what could be done with limited resources and manpower. Then the lockdown came into force just as Spring had ‘sprung’ and none of us could get out to do anything useful. For some of us, the highlight of B Clean’s activities was pulling up the odd roadside weed on our way to the bins. Lockdown was eventually eased and the Work Party made a great effort to catch up and they certainly got on with it and did an amazing amount of work before the Summer heatwave swept over our corner of sunny Spain and work had to stop again.
The restrictions concerning gatherings of people has, inevitably, put a stop to our committee meetings and it is now some months since we got together to discuss matters and generally try and put the world to rights, or at least this little bit of it. Many residents are not aware that to run a group like B Clean means that it has to operate as a registered charity and thus comply with all the rules and regulations that entails. Needless to say, the lack of face-to-face meetings does make this a bit more complicated, but we do our best, often online.
During August we had a request for assistance from a resident concerned about an overgrown tree that was blocking access to the only ramp which permits wheelchairs, buggies etc from getting to the footbridge linking A and B sectors. Due to the nature of the work and its location on a public road, we had to act as intermediaries and committee members got involved and were able to get the council to undertake some initial clearance work to try and ease the situation. After initial contact with the council, our Treasurer, Colin Barton, has been trying to supply them with some information obtained from residents concerning the whole issue of disabled access and usage and this is in hand at the time of writing.
Hopefully by the time you are reading this with your new edition of the Chronicle in your hands, the volunteer workers will be out and about improving the look of Camposol B. It would probably be tedious of me to raise the issue of our desperate need for volunteers as I do it every time. However, urgent need of help is far more important than the risk of being boring, so there it is I have just raised the issue again! Obviously we need people who can help doing the manual work which you will have seen being undertaken, but we also need volunteers to man (person??) the Bucket Collections and help with Litter Picking. You might be able to think of something else that would enhance our environment so why not join B Clean and get involved? As always, we can be contacted through our Facebook page and we would love to hear from you, especially if you are willing to assist with the day to day activities undertaken by the group which will, at some point in the future, involve social events when permitted.
Keep well and keep safe everyone.