Lord Street Gardeners get recognition in Volunteer Award

Where to begin? Yesterday I was delighted to be asked to present certificates at the Annual Volunteer Celebration in the Town Hall organised by the Volunteer Centre and hosted by Mike Howlett. There were seventeen groups recognised and I will endeavour to mention them all in postings this week. In no particular order let me begin with the Lord Street gardeners-described at the ceremony as Lord Street in Bloom. I will forever think of these folk as the Lord Street Guerrilla Gardeners. When the council cut the budget for floral displays on Lord Street these people were not prepared to let our famous boulevard  be neglected.

Most Sandgrounnders will tell you that  Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte chose to live here during his exile from France between 1846 and 1848.. He returned home in triumph to win the presidency and it is popularly believed that his subsequent work with Baron Haussmann, creating wide Parisian boulevards where in the mid-19th century medieval streets still dominated, was inspired by Lord Street.

one of the stone urns plated up by the volunteers

Pauline Morris, Sharon Gregory-Wareing and all their colleagues deserve a great vote of thanks. Our town has been enhanced by their voluntary action. Without government permission these folk got together to do something important. That is the essence of voluntary action. It was good to have the chance to say 'thank you'.