Building Strong Communities

As you walk along the canals of Paddington London towards outer London, like Southall, Hayes, Uxbridge you can notice a great difference in the presentation, general up keep and cleanliness of canal pathways. From nice laid out pathways leading to derelict forgotten, ‘don’t even think about it’ pathways.

As part of the general regeneration programme around the Hillingdon borough, I feel that the focus has been in big areas like high streets and big green parks. Often they forget small green spaces, like the canals. It would be great to have these areas to be better looked after. Add a bit more variety of plants and wild flowers as you walk/cycle along it. Convert some lengthy sections local allotments for people to use. Increase bins and signage. Not only would it encourage local wildlife to flourish more, this would encourage people to explore more, have a sense of community, and make these areas less scary.

I feel these areas are often used as squatting areas, people linger here and often a an place for anti social behaviour to occur. It deters people from walking and exploring these areas. It would be nice for canals to be more appealing so there is sense of community among those people who live in canal boats as well as the people who live in houses and flats.

Small changes, can lead to big ones... perhaps a ‘canal clean up’ project to be lead by the boroughs? I’d volunteer.