Answering the call of the wild
While most of us spend our winter weekends cosying up in front of a movie, drinking cocoa and wearing bedsocks, Eimear Vallely and her friends get down in the freezing mud of London's parks, gardens and woodlands, planting trees and clearing rubbish.
Unfortunately, according to research published this year by the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, parts of London have the worst measures of air quality and access to green, open space in Britain. The latest figures show the situation isn't getting better. The same report puts Londoners' "life satisfaction rating" at the lowest in the country. Put simply, Londoners are grumpy because there are not enough open spaces.
Our urban "lungs" have suffered decades of under-investment. Apart from the royal parks and those in affluent areas such as Dulwich, Chelsea and Westminster, parks are more likely to be no-go areas where you risk getting mauled by a rottweiller, treading in dog mess or being mugged for your iPod.
But where communities have got together to reclaim their parks and open spaces, and volunteers have planted trees, shrubs and flowers, the joggers, picnicking office workers and parents pushing prams have returned. That's where Eimear and her friends are making a difference.
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