Community environmental action: The plumstead common experience

This paper traces the origins and progress of a small grass-roots local environmental initiative. From the simple desire of a few people to clean up some waste land behind their homes grew the Plumstead Common Environment Group. Working closely with the local Borough Council, the group has obtained funding from English Nature, Shell Better Britain Campaign, the Co-operative Society, local businesses and residents. It has expanded its remit from less than 1 ha to over 50 ha of public open space within an older, high-density housing area in Greater London. The important feature of this project is the balance it manages to achieve between a number of potentially competing needs. These include the needs of local people to have a degree of control over, and be practically involved in, the improvement of their immediate environment; to have feedback in terms of aesthetic improvements; and to conserve/enhance the ecological value of the area. Failure to maintain this balance can undermine the viability of such projects. The ways in which the project has addressed ethical, aesthetic and ecological considerations are outlined, serving as an exemplar of sound community-based environmental practice for urban ecological projects elsewhere.