Community plants seed of restoration

THE garden and entrance to the Westville Post Office were recently spruced up thanks to the Westville Conservancy, Westville Country Club and local businesses.

Following a gradual lack of maintenance and neglect, the once landscaped gardens in front of the post office became out-dated and overgrown with invasive alien species and became a hiding place for vagrants and piles of rubbish.

“The vagrants kept on returning to use the covered entrance area and window recesses for sleeping, drinking and ablutions.

“Windows and security doors were vandalised to gain entry and this became an on-going health and safety problem,” said the Westville Conservancy’s Jenni Bell.

Last year, The Great Supply Company funded a major clean-up which was carried out by the staff of Westville Country Club. This involved cutting down and removing large invasive trees and shrubs and clearing out rubbish and dumped goods. Shrubs were removed to open up the area to improve visibility and security.

The area in front of the broken windows was prepared and planted up with plants donated by some Rotarians and by the Westville Conservancy.

For several weeks, the area was maintained by the country club but again, vagrants kept on moving back in and the newly planted areas and building were trashed.

It became a losing battle and when the batch of funding came to an end, the maintenance had to be put in hold.

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After several months of standstill CJ of Ladybird Garden Maintenance offered to cut the grass and clean up the front gardens for which we are most grateful, but, further funding and work was needed to revamp the rest of the front gardens and continue with maintenance.

This year, one of the Westville Conservancy committee, PJ Storm, took it upon herself to try and get help and funding to continue with the project.

Several local business were approached. Watchdog Security Fencing came on board and supplied and installed razor wire to run along the areas where vagrants were sleeping. Glassinc in Westville donated and installed the glass for the broken windows.

Just before lockdown, a team of gardeners, including PJ Storm, Cathy Cranston, Helen Cannon, Henry and Prince spent a day planting a simple but effective indigenous, water-wise and easy-to-maintain garden.

The large plants were donated by PJ and smaller plants came from Helen’s garden and the Westville Conservancy Plant Depot.

The security gate at the main entrance was repaired and oiled and David Perryman donated a thick chain and padlock so that the post office can be locked at night. Litter was picked up and a new dustbin supplied.

PJ said they were amazed at the number of people who stopped for a chat, offered help and thanked all of us. After lockdown, she will inspect the garden to see if all is in order.

“We look forward to Phase 2 where we will include the Westville Girls’ High School Eco Club.

“We will paint the wall to the right of the entrance and extend the garden to cover the entire frontage of the Post Office,” said PJ.

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