Peel Park opened in 1846 as one of the first public open parks in the UK. In 2017, it was renovated after years of neglect to what it is now - a picturesque and well used park by locals, the community, and nearby Salford University. Next year is their 180th birthday so there are events planned through the year.

David and Stuart from the Salford Rangers volunteers try to arrange a monthly session in Peel Park to keep the park tidy, the beds maintained, and to maintain the park for use by the community. Four keen GoodGymers joined in this morning despite the overcast weather and blustery wind making it a bit colder than comfortable.

Pavel and Gameel rolled up their sleeves to clear leaves from the paths and drains, adding them to the growing compost heap situated inside the park. Certainly put the "Gym" in GoodGym from the sounds of things.

Rhi and Ben helped with scraping up moss and weed growth that had developed beneath the park benches. In all, we covered at least 14 or 15 benches to make them more welcoming to passers-by to use.

Another group was involved in litter picking and managed to pick up 3 or 4 sacks of litter, much of which likely had blown around in the winds. After the hard graft, we gathered for a warm drink and biscuits before a group photo.

Thank you to the Friends of Peel Park for some of the photos and for the warm (despite the weather) welcome! We hope to be back later in March as part of the Great British Spring Clean.

Welcome to Georgina, Pavel, and Sam! Great to meet you for the first time!

Big welcome and thank you to Ivo too, GoodGym founder, who made his way by train to come and check out what we're up to. Thank you for coming along and for the hints and tips for future sessions.

Tonight we had a couple of missions:

• Collect donations of clothes to donate to local homeless charities
• Pick up discarded waste and litter following the high winds over the weekend

Thanks to Peter and Eoin (collection from work), Pavel, and Rhi who brought bags of items along to pass on to Sophie (via Eoin) and the Friday outreach team to pass on to those who need warm clothing donations over the winter months.

For the litter pick, we made our way towards Ardwick, picking up litter as we went. The largest collection of litter was around one of the green spaces overseen by Ardwick Climate Action known as Greek Street, likely items discarded by passing drivers on the main Mancunian Way.

We found a lot of takeaway items, plastic bottles, vapes, bags, and cans plus a purse (handed into a police station as it contained ID). In the end, we collected 6 full bin bags and cleared a green space that hopefully can be used by locals and those passing through. The location information was passed onto Keep MCR Tidy to arrange for collection as soon as possible.

On the way back, a few of use had a light jog back to St Peter's Square covering Vimto Park and Piccadilly Gardens in the process.