Web page has helped to boost community spirit

Wednesday, 15 August 2012

Emma Rigby, founder of Love Your Doorstep

By Mary McConnell

WITNESSING the horror of the riots convinced an Enfield mum-of-two to create a website that would encourage more community spirit.

Emma Rigby set up the Love Your Doorstep page on Facebook following the riots last year.

It allows members to post messages, queries, advice and information about anything and everything in Enfield.

The page has proved such a success that Emma has now set up a website, www.loveyourdoorstep.co.uk, and wants business owners to sign up and pledge their support.

She said: “One of the reasons I set up Love Your Doorstep was to try to bring back the community spirit we had lost.

“When I saw all the rioters around London, I found it was like watching a movie. It had come out of nowhere, although I knew the country was quite volatile because of the recession.

“I had been thinking of the idea of the website for a long time – I was finding it hard to settle in Enfield, even though I had been in London for about ten years, six of those in this area. I really wanted to put down roots.”

Emma said that since creating the web page people had made friends, and when she was out in the borough she was always bumping into people she knows through Love Your Doorstep.

“It has made me feel more at home,” she added. “I have been getting lovely emails from people saying what a difference it has made to their lives. I really think we have got a fantastic community here.

“I’m not saying we won’t ever see rioting again, but we are more prepared and I would like to think we are a stronger community because of it and we are not scared to pull together.”

Love Your Doorstep has proved such a success that Emma is launching the scheme in other boroughs and even in the Essex village of Great Notley, where ten per cent of residents have already signed up

Copyright Tindle Newspapers Ltd Saturday, 25 May 2013