Workers keeping the borough green and tidy were flushed with their success after they raised over £1,000 for a hospice with these odd garden ornaments.
Staff from government service company Serco, whose office in East Ham are employed by Newham Council for grounds maintenance, hit upon a novel idea to raise money for a good cause.
Discarded items found on the job - such as toilets, bath tubs, and tree stumps - have been literally spruced up and transformed into toilet planters, wooden mushrooms, and a bath tub vegetable patch.
The novel garden ornaments were sold at the Mayor’s Newham Show last year, making around £1,500.
The cheque was presented to Richard House Children’s Hospice, in Beckton, which cares for children and young people with life-limiting conditions.
Serco supervisor Wyn Marshall said: “Richard House is a local charity and it’s a lovely cause.
“We’ve had a great success at the Mayor’s show raising money for the hospice, not bad for materials that could have ended up in landfill.”
The Serco team are currently preparing to get their green-fingers on another lot of waste for this year’s Mayor’s Newham Show in Central Park on July 13 and 14, with proceeds going to Richard House again.
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