Volunteers donned gardening gloves as they got to work cleaning up a rubbish strewn road in Palmers Green today.

More than 20 people were thankful for today’s sunshine as they helped sweep up, weed and rake-over flower beds at the rear of the Ruth Winston Centre in Green Lanes.

Yvonne Quigley is centre manager at Ruth Winston which provides activities such as fitness classes and computer lessons for the over 55s.

Miss Quigley said: “The road was unkempt, full of tossed litter, weeds and the trees hadn’t been pruned for years. It was in a terrible state and so we wanted to get together to clean it up and make it look nice for the community.

“We’ve been busy pruning back the trees and levelling off the flower beds. It’s been a lot of hard but everyone’s been great. I’m just overwhelmed by how many people wanted to come and help out.

“There’s a real community spirit - I think it's been a big success.”

The team was also helped out by the 23rd Southgate Explorers, and staff from Barclay’s Bank in Palmers Green who are donating £500 towards the costs of flowers which will be planted in the coming weeks.

Explorer Scout Leader Joe Ferns, 23, said: “It’s really nice to help out in the community as well as for the scouts to mix with different generations of people. It’s been a great day so far.”