I am primarily engaged with the Chaplin Community Garden group. This started on a sunny day in September when two local residents put flyers through 240 doors, and a group of 15 people gathered in our nearby park on the corner of Chaplin and Nicholas Road in Easton.

The pocket park is the size of five houses, with the corner building hosting a butcher's shop. These were demolished in the early 1970s and were replaced by some grass, a few trees and a couple of benches in the mid-1980s.

The group came together initially to talk about how the park could be more welcoming, well-used and friendly to wildlife, then spent the following Saturday 'getting our hands dirty' – weeding, pruning and mowing – to get it into shape.

Now the group is planning bigger and better things for the park and we are currently looking at raising funds in the context of our charitable aims. The volunteers hope to plant the beds near the benches formally, leaving the section away from Nicholas Road to be more wild and informal to encourage biodiversity and wildlife. Those in the group are considering options for the wall of the house in Chaplin Road at one end of the Garden, one being an option to commission a mural.

There is also an aim to plan regular informal community events in the space to increase a culture of community engagement and ownership as this is something to nurture and develop.