For the last five years I have been a proud Whalley Ranger. Whalley Range being the neighbourhood where I live in Manchester and the Rangers being the community group set up largely due to the efforts of my friend Dave Saunders.

There are more than 4,000 of us on the group’s Facebook page and over the last five years the Rangers have created a community garden, installed benches, done litter picks, planted alleyways, built planters on our local high street, run markets and festivals and worried local speeding drivers with a community speed check. Through the group my wife Hélène has run a campaign called ‘Weeds are flowers too!’ persuading the council to stop spraying herbicide and organising work parties to weed our pavements.

This is what I had in my head when working with colleagues through lockdown on the Quality of Life Framework that was published by Sadie Morgan’s Quality of Life Foundation last week. Our brief was to explore practical ways in which the built environment can enhance our quality of life. The document is targeted at communities, so I kept asking myself what would the Whalley Rangers do?

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