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In 2004 residents from the Burbank area of Hartlepool decided to make efforts to improve a large green area of community space for the benefit of local people.

The overall aim was to create a community garden from the space that had formerly been used as a BMX track and was at the time a grassed area with ‘mounds’ that the BMX users had ridden over.

The small group of residents formed the Burbank Community Garden Group and applied for a grant from Pride in Hartlepool to make the environmental improvements needed to develop the garden. Initially a contractor came to level the site and remove the ‘mounds’, they also removed unruly and prickly shrubs from the border that were catching litter and making the area look unkempt. A raised bed was built but unfortunately, during construction, was regularly vandalised and it took a Community Police Officer ‘on guard’ plus CCTV to get the wall completed. Residents then took on the role of planting up the border and two round flower beds that were cut into the turf by the local authority.

Entrance gates were paid for by a local housing association, the Three Rivers and the local church donated two benches.

Residents maintain the flower borders and raised beds and complete litter picks. During 2007 a local resident kindly grew some flowering annual plants in her allotment for the Garden Group and these were planted in the raised bed.

In early 2007 one of the residents from the Garden Group took action to form a working group when the back street was alley-gated. The aim of the group was to work together to improve the appearance of the back street and sense of community spirit. The group sought funding from Pride in Hartlepool for plants and hanging baskets and these were planted up by the residents in the spring. The alley-gated fencing at the rear of the properties has had climbing plants planted to create a ‘green’ wall and a sense of privacy to the back lane. Residents have worked together to keep the back lane tidy, carrying out litter picks regularly.

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