Compost thanks due

We were most grateful for the efforts of Mark, the Alexandra Park manager, and especially, Michael and his team from John O'Connor who carry out the park work, in transporting our delivery of compost to our car park at the beginning of November. Back in summer, when we booked and arranged the delivery from the North London Waste Authority, no-one anticipated the clash with the major event of the AP fireworks, which was taking place the next day.

Although we'd hoped for, and I'd booked with NLWA, a further delivery before Christmas, the huge effort the John O'Connor team have to go to couldn't be repeated that soon. The repeated journeys up our steep road for the tractor and tipper-trailer with a couple of tonnes of compost are at the limit of tyre adhesion and engine capacity, and it takes an experienced driver to manoeuvre the combination. For our recent delivery, John O'Connor also had to bring down their front-loader tractor on a low-loader lorry from their base in St Albans. As some of you know, the only thing John O'Connor ask is that we make a significant donation on each occasion to the company's chosen charity, the Gardeners' Benevolent Fund, which we are more than pleased to do.

Our next delivery has been booked with NLWA, AP and John O'Connor for mid-February. We hope no clashes with AP events or other difficulties emerge.