Say It With Flowers Launch Event

On 15th of April, we launched the Say It With Flowers campaign at Brus Tunnel- and what a fantastic day it was!

Together alongside local community members, families, dog walkers and local press, we kickstarted our mission to bring brightness, creativity, and change to neglected community spaces in Hartlepool- starting with Brus Tunnel!

Our Community Spaces Group developed Say It With Flowers to give people a simple way to mark overlooked areas and suggest changes, through DIY flower decorations made from old car wheel trims.

We started this campaign as a creative and symbolic way to bring light, colour, and positivity into once forgotten community spaces, while amplifying residents’ voices. We wanted our flowers to be community conversation starters, giving residents a chance to voice how they feel about an area and improvements they’d like to see, as well as suggestions and nominations to put up other flowers across Hartlepool.

We chose Brus Tunnel as our starting point because it sits between the beach/new persimmon homes and the West View estate- a route many local people have walked for generations. The tunnel holds strong memories and connections for residents, but it had become neglected and uninviting. We saw an opportunity to reclaim the space for the community!

After residents told us they would like better lighting, more bins, some community artwork, more greenery and seating, we decided we wanted to take action.

On the day of our launch event, we chatted with dog walkers, cyclists and other friendly faces in the community about changes they would like to see in West View. We offered tea, coffee, sweets and other refreshments as well as some craft activities like chalk art and ornament decorating for our “Positivitree”, where community members could write positive messages about Hartlepool!

This was just the start of these conversations, you can see the progress of our work at Brus Tunnel here.

---

---

---

---