One of the things I really enjoy about being a local Councillor is the opportunity to make things happen that enhance the community. One of these things is to get people involved in caring for and having a say in their local parks and green spaces. One way of doing this is to form friends of parks groups.

I have started two in High Barnet ward. The first was the Friends of Highlands Gardens which help care for a very special little park hidden away in New Barnet with an amazing water feature. The other friends group I have set up looks after Ravenscroft Gardens. This park is far more prominent but probably equally unknown beyond the few surrounding streets.

The first event that the friends have held in the park was a Victorian past times day. This was held lask Sunday and we were blessed with glorious weather. We had arranged a number of events including a dog show and a tug of war competition as well as various traditional stalls and entertainment courtesy of the Barnet Band and a great Saxophone group.

The number of people who came along exceeded all expectations. The police estimated that we had 1000 people in the park. There were a couple of hundred watching the dog show alone. The really satisfying part was the number of people who came up to me and said that they could not recall anything similar happening before and how they really hoped we would do it again next year and also how wonderful the atmosphere was in the park. There were people of all ages enjoying themselves and a complete lack of commercialisation enhanced the feeling of a real community event.

It was a lot of fun to organise and there were lots of people involved to who did alot of work, but I think it is safe to say that we all had a really great time and the other benefit is that we made around £1000 which will be re-invested in the park and future events.

And yes the photo is me sweltering in the heat in Victorian costume.