Raven funds community project in Merstham
Raven has led and funded a community partnership project to install four new planters and benches for local people in Merstham.
Since the new Merstham Community Facility opened its doors to the community, local residents have complained about cars parking illegally on the space directly outside of the hub and café. Merstham Community Facility staff and resident group, Friends of Merstham Listening Project, set about stopping this by installing planters, benches and bollards to fully pedestrianise the area.
In their efforts to fund this project they approached Glyn Elliot and Raven’s Neighbourhood Team, who managed to secure the full £5,000 budget needed via their contractor contribution scheme – a pot of money provided by Raven’s contractors and suppliers for community projects just like this.
The £5,000 paid for the four large planters, 400 winter bedding plants and the new benches due to be installed mid-December. Additional rubble to help fill the planters was provided by Raven’s contractors working close by on the new Raven Homes site on Portland Drive.
Not only was the funding vital to the success of this project; someone still had to do the dirty work! Kent, Surrey & Sussex Probation Service community payback group spent some time filling the giant planters with soil and another resident group, Friends of Merstham Parks and Greens, committed a Saturday morning to planting the 400 bedding plants – these will add a touch of colour over the Winter months!
The last stage of the project was to install 19 bollards between the planters and benches to completely block the area off, and make it safe for the community. The bollards are to be funded by Cllr Bob Gardner’s department at Surrey County Council with the work carried out by Raven Repairs. Their work has already reduced the amount of illegal parking in the area and improved the landscape of Merstham.
This project is yet another example of how different parts of the Merstham community came together including local residents, volunteers, community groups, Raven and the local authority. They all chipped in to make this project a real success.
Now they hope to keep the planters to represent what the community does best – teamwork, selflessness and creating amazing things for everyone to enjoy.