Community efforts win more awards

The work of the Arlington Association has been recognised by yet more awards, prizes, grants and bursaries.

✦ Our chair Gordon McArthur was a runner-up in the BT Chairman awards. He received a cheque for £500 from BT chairman Sir Michael Rake – and Gordon has donated it to us to buy more plants for the square. He says: ‘I feel passionate about improving the environment and making my neighbourhood a better place to live for all.’

✦ Along with Paul Thompson and three AA gardening volunteers, Gordon attended a reception on HMS Belfast for UK Power Network’s Power of Giving Fund, where we were given a grant of £2,000 to spend on community gardening projects.

Handing over the cheque, Matt Rudling, UK Power Network’s Director of Customer Services, said: ‘We are delighted to award this money. Community projects like these are so important and require a lot of hard work and dedication from all those involved. The Power of Giving Fund is our way of giving something back to the communities where we live and work.’

✦We hosted visitors from the Royal Horticultural Society, the National Gardens Scheme (NGS) and the Metropolitan Public Gardens Association when Penny Snell, chair of the NGS, presented us with a plaque for the Hub – the area of the square that we planted after receiving an NGS Elspeth Thompson Bursary for amateur gardeners working on urban gardening projects for the benefit of their communities.

✦ Thanks to everyone who voted for us in the Royal Horticultural Society’s Facebook contest celebrating 50 years of Britain in Bloom. We won the Community Gardening category! The prize is £300-worth of RHS vouchers.

Stop Press We’ve just heard that Islington Council has awarded us £2,000 from the Community Chest Fund to help us continue our work greening the neighbourhood.