For tonight's task, a group of Goodgymmers teamed up with friends from Litter Clear Volunteer and It'sYour World.Liverpool, led by the fabulous Vicky, to work our combined magic on the L8 Cliff Green park.

This is a small community green nestled amongst houses that could be a real local asset, but has sadly been neglected for far too long and had become an overgrown dumping ground covered in litter and dog dirt when Vicky decided to rescue it. She told us that on LCV's first litterpick of the area they collected a huge 25 bags, and they had clearly done a good job as our volunteers on litterpicking duty today had to look hard to find litter in the park, so much so that Sallyann and Ellie went off on an adventure collecting litter from the surrounding streets. We were just starting to get worried not having seen them for a while when they turned the corner carrying bulging bags of litter as a souvenir of their travels around Smithdown.

Vicky is good at keeping everyone busy and there was plenty for everyone to get involved in apart from litterpicking; the main task of the day was to clear the grass that had overgrown the path, so everyone got stuck in to digging, shoveling and scraping up clods of grass and earth, or collecting them up and tidying the path edges.

Together we managed to clear the entire path on both sides, and we were all amazed at how much wider the path really was compared to how it had seemed when we arrived. It's always good to be able to see the difference we've made at the end of a session and even in the dark that was really clear and a great reward for our hard work.

Vicky told us that the local residents are now beginning to plan how they are going to use the green when it is in better condition and that they would like to set up a bouncy castle there in school holidays for the children to play on. It will be great to see this green space being reclaimed by the community and hopefully becoming a safe and fun play space.

Well done to Katy and Gerard for their first GoodGym session!

Watch this space for the next installment!

Our first task of the 2024 on a crisply cold evening with the fabulous Vicky from Litter-Clear Volunteer supporting her Bloomin' Bays project!

12 Goodgymers came together on Tunner Road, with Liam and Heetu running from Lark Lane for some extra miles, picking up Aditya and Jo at the Suitcases on Hope Street to then run onto the task meeting point, the Suitcases on the corner of Tunnel Road / Earle Road, joined by 8 others (including Sallyann who had said she was too tired after doing the Round Sheffield Run on sunday but her FOMO got the best of her and out she came!)

After a little confusion with names (sorry Jo!) we welcomed Jo visiting from GoodGym Exeter (and look forward to some further ad hoc visists!), and welcomed back Matthew after 18 months of not being at a Monday evening session, lovely to have you back Mat!

Setting lights in tree branches and picking our tools, we quickly got going on clearing the first bay of weeds and debris. Some scraping, sweeping and lopping of branches later and the first bay was ready for a few daffodil bulbs to be planted around the tree. We made sure Aditya planted some of these so when they bloom in the spring we can all have a little smile and remember our good friend who is about to go back home to India and will be very much missed!

With 20 minutes to spare we jumped onto the second bay and with some speedy work got that cleaned up too! We'll be back at the Edge Hill Suitcases on Monday 29th to plant some bulbs around the Luggage Trolley and surrounding land

After a day comprising of four seasons befitting of a bank holiday the Good Gymmers met up to continue with the task of uncovering what we now know are an area of setts (!) - not cobbles and making a neglected walkway into a cared for and clean area. Vicky and Muriel were already hard at work when we got there Litter Clear Volunteers are such a hardworking group of people and when we arrived we could see the work that they had done since our last visit.

Greeted with smiles and a rainbow in the sky we set to continuing to clear, sweep, hoe and ferry all the moss to re-purpose at a nearby green space - Jo showed her determination to ensure that those stubborn straggling weeds came out, we all took turns to wheel the trolleys around to the green space until Jake and Lucien got into a rhythm, they ran back and forth with trolleys full - so quickly that the wheels fell off one of the trolleys... Heetu and Laura were filling the trolleys giving little time for a breather, everyone sped up as the wind started to get up and the sky got stormy - and then we had FINISHED.. we all said how we had not thought we would finish the task when we first got there - but once again it shows that with a group of people you can get a whole load of stuff done and what fun it is.

We all rushed home just in time before the rain arrived. Thanks LCV for helping us work off our Easter eggs.

The nights just get lighter and lighter which is a joy. Tonight we worked on the task in the light AND the dry - wowww!!! When we arrived at the task the LCV crew had been working hard already - we all got stuvk into clearing the litter moss (and dog poo!!) from what turned out to be a lovely cobbled area. The moss was reused by being placed in a nearby field so all the wildlife can continue to make use of this wonderful resource. There were areas of horsetail/marestail and after some googling and allomenteer knowledge we seperated that out to be dealt with on its own. It was a real team effort with people shovelling hoeing sweeping transporting. The time flew past and we have arranged to go back to complete the task next week.

Our 'InMy Own Backyard' sessions are our members chance to nominate their own street/neighbourhood for a clean up. Our first session this year was in Wavertree, where there is a huge litter problem but a bunch of local neighbours who work hard through the year to improve the area. For this session we joined a couple of neighbours to focus on a selection of streets that nestle between two main roads and a railway line.

Splitting into three teams of two we walked the streets clearing up litter as we went, and collecting a hefty 12 bags, including all the usual items of cans, alcohol and pop bottles, fast food packaging and plies of cigarette butts that has clearly been emptied out of people's cars onto the street.

It was shocking to see how much litter there was in a few quiet residential streets, but also really inspiring to see the work the local residents are doing to make a community garden in large planters and we were treated to a tour of one of the allyways projects, with benches and community composting included!

It's easy to look at an area covered in litter and make a judgment, but if you scratch the surface and meet the people who live there, you usually find fabulous things going on!

This session was a great collaboration between the local neighbours group with Becky and Vanessa, GoodGym Liverpool and the amazing Vicky who is not only a GoodGym member, but also runs a volunteer group called Litter Clear Volunteer