Tidying up Catford’s Wildcat Wilderness

Four members of the management team from ‘Better’ leisure centres, and a group of volunteers, battled torrential rain and thunderstorms to help clear and tidy up a much-loved green community space.

The six-acre Wildcat Wilderness site in Catford is nestled in an urban area. It contains a few allotments and is also an education centre for schools, as well as a site for events and festivals.

Wildcat Wilderness is managed by charity Lewisham Local, which has been running the site for the past decade.

Every now and then, the charity opens the space to the general public to allow people to try foraging and learn about wild spaces and the management and conservation of these areas. Volunteers can also harvest fruit and berries to make their own jams and chutneys.

But some parts of the area have been neglected for many years and used as an unofficial dump.

The workforce managed to fill a 10ft skip in the space of a couple of hours. They also amassed an impressive pile of scrap metal – including half a rotten bath tub.

The session was eventually curtailed due to thunder and lightning, but not before much had been achieved.

Pictured top: The team working on the site (from left): Krysztof Lasek (Ladywell Arena, GM), Will Mannell (Glass Mill GM), Matthew Houghton (Community Sports Manager) and Sebastian Reid (Glass Mill AM) (Picture: GLL)