By Rob Gooding, Community Organiser
Wishing Well Gardens is a small group that formed around six months ago with a focus on improving the green spaces around their community centre, based at the Lings community centre. The group have already started to make a huge difference to the area, supported by Rotherham Council and funded by the Ward Housing Hubs, the group have transformed the area around the community centre to create a beautiful garden area.
The group supported by housing staff arranged for community caretakers to remove the self-set bushes from the area giving them the blank canvas they needed to start their first project. After a successful bid to the ward housing hubs for the tools and plants they needed the project began to pick up pace and was recently finished. I believe this project demonstrates how the ward housing hubs working with residents and staff can really make a difference to local areas.
The group are eager to start the next part of their project, this is going to be a community allotment plot close to the centre where they plan to use gardening as a means to improve residents physical and mental health by growing fresh fruit and veg that all residents can access as they need with any surplus being donated to a local food bank.