Residents living in St Margarets and Twickenham have raised more than £6,500 for the Moormead Community & Sports Pavilion in 50 days, successfully exceeding its first crowdfunding target.

The crowdfund, which was hosted by the South West London Environment Network (SWLEN) initially wanted to raise £5,000 to pay for design and planning expenses needed to give the Pavilion a much-needed makeover.

It is the largest amount raised on the SWLEN crowdfunding platform since it started in January 2018, receiving 237 contributions from donors – which is also SWLEN’s highest number of donations.

"The progress of the project is great news,” said deputy council leader Alex Ehmann.

He continued: “Local residents have risen to the challenge with their contributions and, as ward councillors, we’ll continue to support the considerable effort being employed to bring the Pavilion back into community use.”

Colin Cooper, Chief Executive of SWLEN, said: “We were very pleased to be able to host this crowdfund on our #SWLENcrowdfund platform to raise funding for this cause, which we know is close to the hearts of people in St Margarets.

“We hope the funding will enable Moormead Community and Sports Pavilion to move forward with the Council and regenerate this pavilion, to once again provide benefit to park users and further enhance the park.

“Our platform is designed to raise funding for community-led environmental projects, and we welcome hearing from people with good ideas for local projects.”

Residents have been consulting with Moormead Community & Sports Pavilion on what they Pavilion should look like and have been receiving a keen interest from gardeners.

Gariesh Sharma, resident and trustee of the charity, explained: “We had feedback to improve the look of the Pavilion from the back.

“We are proposing a green wall/community garden to address this.”

Keen gardeners interested in helping with the project are encouraged to get in touch via moormeadcsp@gmail.com

To give feedback on the Pavilion regeneration, get more information or find out how you can get involved – visit our website at https://e-voice.org.uk/mmp/.