European Neighbours Day

What a great day at Venture Housing on Boaler Street last week. European Neighbours Day, celebrates communities and neighbours and was first organised in France, or maybe Germany? following the death of a neighbour whose body was not discovered for a long time.

Now once a year we celebrate our neighbours and have a happy day with them, enjoying their company in shared activities. At Venture Housing there was a packed diary. The morning was for the children, with a bouncy castle, lots of toys to play on outside, arts and crafts, making face masks, face-painting - just the thing for half-term. Then for the adults there was a game of bingo and for all some very tasty international food. I went over in my lunch hour from work and ate some paella cooked outside in a huge pan three feet across. You could also have bolgnese or chinese food and lots of cake! There were free hanging baskets for 80 lucky residents (which local councillors helped pay for from our locally held budget).

Hundreds of residents turned out to enjoy themselves. And as I looked round I could see staff from three different Housing Associations who all supported the event - so well done to C7 and Rodney Housing as well as Venture. I saw PCSO's, staff from the LCC Neighbourhood Management Team, board members from Dream High, officers from loads of our Tenants and Residents Groups, the Clean Team. Merseyside Chinese Association had a stall as did lots of other groups.

Wendy arrived just after I left and agreed with me that it was a really great event.

I cannot wait until next year when, if it is possible, it will be even bigger and even better.

A very neighbourly day indeed.