WHEN STREETS Ahead started, the idea behind our community campaign was a simple one.

One person can change a street for the better – and if one person on every street across Glasgow steps up, the whole city can be transformed.

Christophe Marchand, from Woodlands, is an example of exactly the kind of Street Champion we are looking for.

Fed up looking at the untidy, unloved back lane between Montague Street and Barrington Lane, he brought his neighbours together and transformed an area which had become a magnet for rubbish and anti-social behaviour.

With the help of a £500 Streets Ahead grant, the small group of residents has worked hard to create a fantastic community space.

Christophe explains: “I moved to Montague Street around five years ago, and I love living there.

“But the lanes around the Woodlands area were often used as fly tipping spots, full of rubbish and graffiti, and I saw how badly they were treated.

“I got involved in a local clean-up and realised that for most people, the lanes were simply places they could see from their back windows but which they avoided as too dirty.”

In March of this year, Christophe put his plan into action. Taking advice from another group of residents who had successfully cleaned up the lane between Montague Street and Park Road, he rounded up a team of volunteers by posting leaflets through local doors.

“The aim was to transform our lane, neglected for decades, into a community place – somewhere people could take care of together and meet up with their neighbours for social events,” he adds.

“At that first meeting, we realised we had all thought similar things over the years but had never got round to doing something about it.”

For the next few months, Christophe and the team met every Sunday morning for a couple of hours, digging up weeds, removing litter and clearing the cobbles.

“I think we spent about 200 hours on this initial stage of work, clearing more than eight skips of soil with the help of the Community Payback Team and Glasgow City Councillor Martha Wardrop,” he says, adding with a laugh: “We always provided homemade cakes and coffee too at each meeting, to make sure we had the energy to keep going.”

Christophe rallied support from local businesses and organisations including the Woodlands Trust board, who donated £200 of vouchers to start the project. Some residents even donated cash to provide a planter, custom-made by a local craftsman.

“We are very grateful to everyone who supported us,” says Christophe. “We were delighted to receive the £500 Streets Ahead grant, as it has helped us provide more planters and plants, paints for the garden door and tea and coffee for the community event we planned to say thank you to everyone who helped us.

“That money made a massive difference to us, and we are delighted to be part of Streets Ahead.”

The group also designed and erected a series of poster artworks, which detail the before and after journey of Woodlands Lane.

Christophe is now hoping to continue work on the lane, adding more plants and organising a barbecue for residents.

“We want to encourage neighbours to meet each other in the lane,” he says. “We want to keep it clean until spring and bring together more residents for planting in the new season.

“We are also considering a gate to increase safety, but that might be too expensive. We have lots of plans.”

Christophe adds: “We have had some really lovely feedback from local people – one woman, who said she had avoided going into the lane for 20 years, told us we were inspirational and had made this a community space worth visiting.

“That means a lot to us. Hopefully what we have done will encourage others to get involved.”

Streets Ahead is supported by Glasgow City Council. City Building and City Charitable Trust.

Have you transformed your street? Tell us your story – email streetsahead@heraldandtimes.co.uk