Come and join the OpenStreetMap community and put Worcester Park on the map. We’ll be walking around the area adding street names, libraries, pubs, playgrounds, parks, allotments, cinemas and other details to the map! More info on Sutton Active (thanks Adrian for all the help).

We’re in the process of building a green map of Sutton using OpenStreetMap, and Worcester Park is the last major area of Sutton with no coverage. With your help we are going to complete the Worcester Park area.

Why don’t we just use Google?

You can’t actually re-use, change or publish a lot of existing maps without violating copyright, so you’re stuck with Google’s or A-Z’s boring view designed for motorists. It can cost a lot of money!

OpenStreetMap is different - the data and the map images are available to everyone to use for free, so long as you credit the community when using them. Anyone can add to them - just like Wikipedia - so you can make the maps you want without the hassle or expense.

We’re making maps for cyclists, bus or car club users; maps showing where to buy local food; maps for heritage trails in Sutton. Once we all put in the basic data, we can make maps of anything easily!

So how will it work?

Just turn up! We’ll run workshops at 11am and 2pm for newcomers, and experienced mappers will be around to help you hit the streets and gather some data.

Well done to Cheam resident David Keeble, who scooped first prize in the “Sustainable Sutton” competition with his idea for making Sutton greener. His winning idea is to “set a ‘Green space Challenge’ to encourage a one per cent increase in quality green space each year in Sutton.” It will go into Sutton’s Sustainability Action Plan, the first version of which should be out in June.

David Keeble, who wins a £200 voucher for Pearsons Cycles in Sutton and an energy monitor so that he can keep track of home energy consumption, said, “I am delighted to receive the prizes and will definitely put them to good use. I fully support the One Planet Living initiative to make Sutton a better place today and for tomorrow. I’m looking forward to seeing a greener Sutton.”

Read more about David’s idea and the competition on the BioRegional news page.

Welcome to our blog, where we will be keeping you up to date on initiatives that form part of One Planet Living in Sutton. Over the next fifteen years we hope to transform Sutton into a genuinely sustainable suburb. This means reducing our ecological footprint while strengthening our community and improving our quality of life.

The whole community will need to get involved, from council initiatives to new social enterprises, from residents becoming more energy efficient to schools and businesses serving better food. If you have any ideas then leave us or a comment, or better yet add your ideas to the Sustainability Action Plan!