About a dozen volunteers gathered to clean up the lovely little green once more this year, with me representing Goodgym. After a bit of a hiatus, fly tippers have been back, dumping a sofa and some bits of furniture, as well as heaps of wrappers, bottles, cans, cartons and plastics.

We wheeled a recycling bin down from a neighbours' house, then spread out around the area. A team of six made their way up and down Buxted Road, then, having finished in double time, cleaned Ashurst Road all the way up to Friary Park. Grabbing a rake, I helped another volunteer scrape leaves from gutters along the roads as well, to help stop them flooding. The rest of our hardy team cleaned the area up to the back entrance of the Wren Academy, the verge outside Woodhouse Allotments, and the green.

At the end, we gathered about 13 sacks, plus a string of cans of nitrous oxide, reporting those and the sofa to the council.