Greening the Redbricks is at the same time a group of hard-working volunteer residents, and a call to action that you can just get on and DIY. We’ve been meeting over the last year, most time with a couple of supportive folk from City South (CSM), and sometimes others called in specially. Our aim is to make the Redbricks a more sustainable and all-round nicer place to live, and attempting to connect our day-to-day lives with the big global challenges and impacts out there these days. Sometimes this has meant us getting down to brass tacks, trying to push a mostly willing but limited CSM, and other times dreaming hard, then trying to see how these dreams can easily become reality! Sometimes we’ve all got dead frustrated at how long it takes to achieve little things, other times we get excited, come up with a vision, and win £80,000!
So far, we have managed to get water butts and new rat-proof compost bins for the estate – sited on Leaf Street and ‘Letsby Avenue’ (between Humberstone & Hunmanby Avenues). Also in response to residents’ responses to the City South (CSM) questionnaire, we have supported the appropriate planting of small native trees. We have worked with CSM on the re-landscaping design of the area in front of the TARA/community office, including raised herb beds, an accessible entrance and a bike shed. We attempted, with some success, to get the kitchen & bathroom improvements to be more sustainable, and are still working on getting pilot indoor bike lock-ups. And as already mentioned, we came up with the concept of the Green Zone, and successfully won the money to make this happen – lots more exciting things will happen this year as a result, and with our eye on the future, with others getting underway.
