Please help save a London city farm/riding school for children

[wombly]

Deen City Farm is a brilliant community farm, giving inner-city kids a chance to see animals being well looked after. There's also a fabulous riding school for local children, and tons of volunteering opportunities for children of all abilities. The work they do is amazing.

There's a strong eco focus, too, with workshops on growing your own veg, and tons of green activities for local kids. Entry to the farm is completely free.

Even if you don't live in London, please take a second to sign the online petition to ask Merton Council not to cut its grant.

Please sign the petition here!

[wombly]

Here's the farm's website.

You can imagine how expensive it is normally to ride in London! This farm means that children can ride without being the offspring of millionaires. They do Own a Pony Days, stable management, and so on.

If I can get my act together I'll post some photos of their gorgeous horses.

[cazzybabs]

done

[WhyHavePets]

Done

[wombly]

Thank you so much, you lovely people.

[wombly]

Testing, testing...

Have uploaded a pic...

[wombly]

Oh no, has not worked. Will try again.

[wombly]

Now does it work?

[LadyGlencoraPalliser]

Signed. I lived in South London when my children were small and we went there a lot. It's a fabulous place and a real resource for families like us with young children and no garden.

[wombly]

Thank you so much, LadyGlencora. I'm still working on the photos!

[HairyMaclary]

signed, we've been there frequently and love it

[wombly]

Thank you! And now, if you click on my name, you can see some horses.

[WhyHavePets]

Aw

Do you work with the farm Wombly?

[Pixel]

Signed. It looks like a great place.

[Rebeccaruby]

Have signed

[wombly]

Thanks! No, I don't work there. But I've always found it a lifesaver in terms of cheering me up when I could stand no more of motherhood - take the kids, look at the animals, feel a whole lot better.

[wombly]

I think it would break my heart if they had to close it.

[WhyHavePets]

Ah, yes they are fantastic places for that aren't they?!
Lets hope the petition has some effect, losing places like this is not a good thing IMO.

[ManateeEquineOhara]

Done. I hope it works, it looks far too lovely to close :(

[wombly]

Thank you, Pets and Manatee. The number of names on the petition has gone up a lot today, hooray!

I'm going to send the petition link to all my email groups.

[DastardlyandSmugly]

Have signed. It's a fabulous place, I hope they don't close it.

[wombly]

Thanks, Dastardly. I might even have to dust off my Facebook account and get all my long-lost friends on the case.

[ZephirineDrouhin]

Have signed. We love it too. Dd had her first four birthday parties there, and as you say they do fantastic work with kids' volunteering groups as well as with people with disabilities. Would be absolutely gutted if it closed.

Is there anything else we can do other than signing the petition?

[wombly]

Yes, there's a Facebook campaign. I'm not very au fait with Facebook, but you can add Deen City Farm as a friend, I think, and certainly you can 'like' it.

It would be good to write a short letter to the local press if you had time. The Wimbledon Guardian (freebie) has been covering it, but letters to the Editor are always good. That freebie magazine, Time and Leisure, would probably be supportive if they got letters from readers.

Also we should all be lobbying our ward councillors (details on the council website here.) If all the councillors got emails about it, it would really make an impression.

We've had birthday parties there, too - always lovely - except once, when a duckling got nervous and did a poo on someone's mummy while she was handling it.

[Sossiges]

Done

[wombly]

Thanks, Sossiges. Love the name!