GREEN-fingered residents and councillors have teamed up in an effort to clean up the overgrown St John’s churchyard in Halesowen.

A team of more than 20 volunteers spent several hours in the churchyard on Saturday morning (June 30) chopping down unkempt hedges, pruning trees, litter picking and painting the railings.

The event, organised by Belle Vale councillor Simon Phipps with the support of Kenneth Rudge from St John’s Church and Halesowen in Bloom’s Eve O’Connor, Cornbow Centre manager, was in response to a number of concerns raised by local residents and relatives of those buried in the churchyard.

Cllr Phipps said: “Local residents have frequently contacted me about the upkeep of the churchyard.

“Unfortunately the local authority aren’t currently in a position to increase maintenance, although I hope that we can change that in the future, so with Halesowen in Bloom ongoing and relatives of people buried in the churchyard contacting me to raise this issue, I went to the community for help.

“There has been an overwhelming response from local residents and businesses and we managed to get over 20 people to help on a very hot Saturday morning.

“This demonstrates just how effective our community is when we come together to tackle an issue such as this.”

People of all ages attended the clean-up, while several other councillors also lent a hand, including Andrea Goddard, David Vickers and Joe Roberts, as well as local MP James Morris.

Simon added: “I’d also like to send a special thank you to Kenneth Rudge and Eve O’Connor for helping to arrange this with me. Kenneth has been working tirelessly in the churchyard before now and I hope we can continue to support him in that in the future.

“Additionally Eve has been a real help providing us with equipment and paint for the railings. We have some excellent local businesses and organisations that support our community and when we come together anything really is possible.”