This is Hammersmith and Fulham News TV, on Friday August 7th 1987, here is your newsreader, Fatma Hammad.

Welcome, and exciting news just in tonight, a 16 year old boy named as Lester Holloway has saved Wormwood Scrubs from potential disaster. Single handedly he has led a campaign to prevent a train depot being built on this very important and essential land in the north of our fair borough. I'm sure that this young man will go on to inspire future generations of our local children, to recognise the power a child's voice can have.

I'm getting used to this, it's not so difficult to find your way around Old Oak School even though it is my first day here!

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Oh what was that!!!

You'll get used to this! See that huge patch of land over there, right behind the school?

Yeah I see it, it's huge alright

WELL, that's Wormwood Scrubs, it belongs to the Ministry of Defence and they often practise over there, they are letting the canons off today, ready for the Horse guard's parade tomorrow!

But I thought Wormwood Scrubs was a prison Oh yeah, there is a prison on the scrubs, it's quite famous but I bet you didn't know it was built by the prisoners themselves in 1874! No, I didn't know that, but I did learn that the Scrubs was initially used as an area for cattle grazing, and has been used for pop concerts and fayres in the past.

Oh yeah?

Yeah, I learnt that in my History lesson this morning, the teacher was going on about it! OK, that's enough about the past, let's get on with the future!

Class 6 have been researching and investigating Wormwood Scrubs. We all know it extremely we", most of us have been visiting it since we were babies. We feel passionately about its future and we want you to help us to promote this often forgotten treasure of our borough.

The scrubs are often seen as a piece of land with nothing of interest on them and often as a dangerous place to be. However, this is not how we view the scrubs.

Georgia did you know that 340 insects can live in 1 Oak Tree?

Really? Well, did you know that 3 people can benefit from the oxygen from 1 tree?

Yes, I did actually!

How did you know that?

Don't you remember, Vinny told us!

Oh of course!

We interviewed some people who feel the same way about the Scrubs as us. We interviewed them and found out as much information as we could about the area.

I'm Vincent Ganley, better known as Vinny to the children of Old Oak School. I'm a nature Conservation Officer, I work over on the Scrubs, looking after all the varied nature and wildlife. I want more people to appreciate the wonderful species of animals and plant life we have on the Scrubs.

I'm Susie Gretz, I founded The Friends of Wormwood Scrubs. I want to help any projects that encourage responsible use of the Scrubs.

I'm Nicky Case, I am in charge of the Old Oak Community Centre on Wormwood Scrubs. I want safer and cleaner Scrubs.

I'm Emma Banthorpe and I am the Senior Policy and project Officer for Hammersmith and Fulham, I make all the important decisions with regards to the scrubs. I want more people in this borough to know about the Scrubs and get out there and use it.

We also conducted a survey of the children of Old Oak School. Some of the results were rather discouraging. Even though 153 children out of 251 interviewed used the scrubs many felt the scrubs to be dangerous and uninviting.

We are now very aware that the Scrubs needs to be safer and more attractive to make people use it. We wanted to find another place similar to it and find out what kinds of things we could do to help the Scrubs become a better advertised area.

Wormwood Scrubs is so unique in our borough that we had to go all the way to South London to find another open space to equal it. We went to Morden Hall Park. It is run by the National Trust and has many visitors each year. While we were there we played lots of games that taught us more about the nature and wildlife that exists there.

These games gave us a great idea.

Do you know how to play the Blindfold Game? No? Well here's a quick demonstration.

Get into partners. One of you is blindfolded and led to an area with lots of trees. Let that person hug, feel, smell and get to know that tree really well! Lead them away from the tree and take off the blindfold. Now, which tree was it?!

Another game we played was the Leaf Game. Take a few pictures of leaves which can be found in the immediate area. The object of the game is to match the leaves to the trees nearby. The first person to match all their pictures to the trees is the winner.

These games would all be great to play over the Scrubs. We could make a nature trail. A nature trail? The Scrubs is too big for a nature trail!

Yeah, not a trail that you follow, but playing different games in different areas of the Scrubs so that you make use of the wide spaces there and move around as you do so. That's a great idea, you could learn all about the area's wildlife as you moved around! That's the point!

We have been busy designing leaflets and posters with an outline of games on that people could play over the scrubs. We have given a presentation to our whole school and will give another one to our local community soon. We have been given permission by Nicky to put some over in the Community Centre and to put up a display over there to advertise all our work.

We will also put some over in the local hospitals.

That's a great idea, it's so boring waiting around in hospitals, visitors could get out there and use the Scrubs while they are waiting for visiting hours or when they need a break from the hospital environment.

That is the point yeah!

We found out from Emma Banthorpe that money from the car park at the hospital goes to fund projects on the scrubs so there is funding for us to do more promotion too. That's right, and Vinny said he would photocopy the leaflets for us.

Did he?

Yeah remember when we were helping him to plant all those trees over on the scrubs the other day!

Yes! How could I have forgotten, I really ached after that!
It was great fun though to know that those trees will be there for years to come, benefiting from the scrubs. I've really enjoyed promoting the Scrubs.

Welcome back to Hammersmith and Fulham news with Fatma Hammad here in the studio. Hello, and this is the headline for today, Wednesday 17th November. The children of Old Oak School have been following in the footsteps of Lester Holloway, who, saved the scrubs nearly 20 years ago and promoted their interest to the people of this borough. Just like him they show us that children's voices are important and children can make a difference to our future.