WHETHER it's organising local clean-ups or road safety campaigns, planting and weeding, turning gap sites into green spaces everyone can enjoy, or putting up hanging baskets in your street, we want to hear what you are doing to improve your community.

With the support of our partners, Clean Glasgow, City Charitable Trust, Glasgow Housing Association and the Scottish Fire and Service, we can help turn your dreams into reality.

Within every project, we will appoint a Street Champion – someone who will keep us in touch with what you need and how we can help you to make it happen.

Get involved by calling 0141 302 6555 or email streetsahead@herald andtimes.co.uk

You can find out more – and read inspirational stories from people and projects across the city – on our website www.eveningtimes.co.uk

THE third year of our successful Streets Ahead campaign is about to get under way – and we need you to play your part.

We want to hear about your street, your park, your community garden, your allotment – and let us help you to make it even better.

Our fantastic partners – City Charitable Trust, Clean Glasgow, Scottish Fire and Rescue Service and Glasgow Housing Association – are all back on board.

Later in the summer we will announce news of an exciting fifth partner joining us for year three.

We want to find more Street Champions, dedicated to rallying neighbours and friends to transform their local area and we want to hear from schools keen to play a part in their community. We want to get businesses on board, support existing projects in the community and kick-start new ones.

Keen to get our third year under way are the pupils of Croftcroighn Primary School in Garthamlock whose hard-working eco committee have already had a great impact on their community.

The children, who have complex additional support needs, litter-pick regularly in the grounds and surrounding areas, have planted fruit and vegetables and created a wildlife garden.

Scottish Greens MSP Patrick Harvie joined children from the school and Avenue End Primary – with which Croftcroighn and Kincardine Nursery share campus facilities – to judge a litter-picking competition poster recently, and the school has plans to continue its good work next year.

Croftcroighn head teacher Margaret McFadden said: "For a number of years, our children have been working on maintaining and improving our school environment.

"We have involved the pupils from Avenue End Primary and Kincardine Nursery to help us with a campus litter challenge. We have been trying over a number of years to raise awareness about litter in our environment and asked Patrick Harvie along to help judge the winners of the poster competition.

"It was organised by our fantastic eco committee and everyone was excited to meet Patrick. We will continue to ensure our school environment remains litter free."

If you are looking for inspiration to get your Streets Ahead project started, take a leaf out of Street Champion Marieclaire McGuinness's book.

The Partick mum was so fed up looking out on to a messy space, which is actually a shop roof, outside her Glasgow tenement home, she decided to turn it into a community garden.

She said: "I cleared it up, put out pots and growbags and asked my neighbours if they wanted to help. Then, I walked into my local housing association office, told them they could jail me or join me, but I was going to turn the roof into a garden."

With the support of Partick Housing Association and a £1000 grant from Streets Ahead, Marieclaire and her neighbours are slowly transforming the area into a beautiful space for residents.

Marieclaire said: "I'm really grateful for the support from Streets Ahead – it's a vital campaign. We need to make the most of our urban spaces."

Urban Roots, which was formed in 2009 by members of Toryglen Gardening Club, knows all about making the most of urban spaces.

This fantastic community project, which cares for garden sites and woodlands, received a £250 Streets Ahead grant to buy a beehive to help them deliver beekeeping courses.

Community woodland officer Tom Cooper said: "People in our community mainly live in flats and have little outdoor space. Streets Ahead brings people together."