In August (2023) two of Ward End Gardeners Association sites have had help from the British Telecom Open Reach Volunteering Programme. This enables BT employees to use up to three days of working time each year for community and charitable work. As a result, organisations run by volunteers like ours are able to access skills and time which would be worth millions of pounds if we had to pay for the labour.
When we were offered this help by the local Patch Manager Build, Muhammad Aaidun, WEGA was able to spell out what we wanted doing as a priority and he was able to bring in teams to work on the two sites on successive days.
At Blackpit Lane site, 22 staff turned up. They strimmed and cleared 2 vacant and heavily overgrown plots so we are in a better position to rent them out. They also did some heavy work laying slabs for a wide accessible path to the toilet block and moved top soil into raised beds on the “Seed Sensations” project plot. This plot has been rented by Heart of Birmingham Vocational College (HBVC) which caters for 16-25 year old disabled people – a partnership between HBVC and WEGA which only started in April this year, but already it has made a big difference to the site.
The HBVC Seed Sensations Plot 
Filling raised beds 
Clearing overgrown plot 
Strimming and mowing another overgrown plot 
Weeding round raised beds 
Start of the day – path to toilet block 
Preparing ground for new accessible path 
Laying the path slabs 
Finished path, end of the day 
the BT Open Reach volunteer team at Blackpit Lane 
Tired but a good job done today!
At St Margarets Road, the 9 staff also strimmed and cleared overgrown plots, cutting back brambles and nettles. In addition, with a lorry mounted BT cherry picker they were able to cut back a willow which overhangs the access track to the site. To cap it all, one engineer with building experience helped with laying the foundation for the extension to the toilet block to make it wheelchair accessible.
Many hands make light work, and if they’re telephone engineers, they bring skills, muscle power and enthusiasm. Can’t be bad. So many thanks to all – it’ll make a big difference to our progress in developing our sites.