Residents on one of Barnet’s biggest housing estates turned out to help make their neighbourhood a place to feel proud of when Barnet Homes’ ‘Love where you live’ campaign came to visit.
The Love where you live day at the Dollis Valley Estate, EN5 on Saturday 24 September saw Barnet Homes staff and local residents giving the area a makeover with jobs such as gardening, litter picking, cleaning and painting.
Residents were invited to suggest the jobs they would like done on the day, and Barnet Homes encouraged as many local people as possible to join staff to carry these out on Saturday. Volunteers were rewarded for their efforts with a BBQ afterwards.
Barnet Homes’ Chief Executive, Tracey Lees, said: “The Love where you live campaign is about staff and residents taking a fresh look at an estate and doing those small tasks, which make a big difference to the neighbourhood.
“We work hard to keep the environment on our estates up to a good standard and regularly check on all of them, but the biggest difference comes when residents get involved and take real pride in their area.
“It was good to see many residents joining staff on the day to create an impact and lasting benefits for the estate.”
Fred Hudd, a resident of Dollis Valley said:”Everyone has done a good job and made a definite improvement and great to see lots of young volunteers here today.”
Besides the environmental work, there were plenty of free activities and advice available on the day including:
• free activities for kids
• the chance to meet the fire brigade and the local Safer Neighbourhood Teams.
This was the second event of its kind staged by the social landlord this year, following a one-day makeover at the West Hendon estate earlier in the month and four similar makeovers at estates across the borough in 2010.
Barnet Homes, which manages 15,000 council properties on behalf of Barnet Council, hopes to stage further Love where you live events at more estates in 2012.