Community Service

For the last issue of SE4 Magazine, irritated by the occasional anonymous troll berating our readers for being armchair activists, we wrote an article about the power of the internet to effect change.

We believe that it's a false dichotomy to suggest that there are people who "do things" and people who "talk about things". Talking is sometimes doing, as the campaign to save the Rivoli showed. Political clout is magnified by popular support, as The Telegraph Hill Society has demonstrated. And sometimes, people who talk can also do, as was shown on Sunday when Kate and five other Brockley Central readers joined the stalwarts of the Brockley Cross Action Group to clear up the area around the station.

Their work to improve the station is important, inspiring and so unglamourous that the group were at one stage asked by a passing girl if they were doing community service. Which of course, they were. Thanks to everyone who went - here's Kate's report:

"The Brockley station clear-up took place on Sunday and was a great success. At least 13 people turned up, including several BC readers, and we enjoyed the afternoon sunshine while filling over 10 big bags with rubbish, litter and weeds.

"The Common was denuded of tin cans and fast food wrappings, and the flowerbeds next to platform 2 were tidied up, including removing about a zillion cigarette butts. If any BC readers are among those thoughtless souls who drop litter or fag-ends around the station, please bear in mind that if I ever see you doing so, I will hunt you down and make YOU spend the afternoon picking it all up again."

Maradoll has also written about the day here.

On another note, the problem of free newspapers dumped on the floor beside the recycling bins outside Brockley Station seems to have improved lately - but please remember to take your paper home with you if the bins are full.