Volunteers on the Culpeper Community Garden
A FOUR-decades-old group backyard in Angel – beloved by Paul “Mad Dog” McGuinness of The Popes fame – has misplaced its council funding.
Mr McGuinness is considered one of 170 volunteers who go to Culpeper Community Garden in Cloudesley Road every week as a part of its outreach work with the group.
The backyard was arrange in 1983 after locals bought fed up with kids taking part in among the many rubble of the Second World War and determined to create a group “oasis”.
Mr McGuinness stated: “I played in music and toured all around the world with bands and then I had a brain injury. So my life seemed to change completely. And then I found this place and I started to get back on track. It was very nice. It just sort of normalised things and made me feel good about myself.”
In 2013 he was run over by a automotive in Stoke Newington and was put right into a coma for seven weeks. During his restoration, he needed to “learn to do everything again, talk, walk, even going to the toilet – everything”.
He is now the frontman of Aisling, however says the backyard “means everything to me – it makes me feel normal”.
Culpeper’s Garden supervisor Mandy Graham stated she felt “hurt” after Islington rejected their bid for additional funding, after they went above and past to assist their members throughout Covid. “It just seems such a shame,” she stated.
Islington has defended its determination.
A spokesperson stated: “We obtained a really excessive variety of sturdy purposes for our voluntary and group sector Partnership Grants Programme 2024-28 . The worth of the purposes drastically exceeded the money available and we needed to make some exhausting choices.
“We’ve offered to help support Culpeper Community Garden to seek other funding, and Culpeper also recently made a successful application for project funding through our Local Initiatives Fund.”
