Communities across the region gear up to help Clean Up Yorkshire campaign
COMMUNITY GROUPS across Yorkshire have responded to a call for action to put a stop to the region’s litter blight.
The Yorkshire Post has revealed how keeping the region’s streets clean of rubbish is costing £77m a year – and launched a new campaign to get readers to Clean Up Yorkshire, holding litter picks throughout June.
In Wakefield, members of Pinders Heath Residents’ Association, which has held cleans up on their estate over the last three years, will hold two litter picks as part of the Clean Up Yorkshire campaign next month, on June 10 and June 21. The group was given a £1,000 grant from Wakefield Council to fund litter picking equipment and bulbs, and also received bin bags and high-vis vests from the Campaign to protect Rural England (CPRE), partners in the Clean Up Yorkshire Campaign.
They regularly collect a dozen bags of rubbish at a time.
Group chairman Peter Fenlon said: “From a financial point of view, if the area looks presentable, the value of your house goes up, but there’s a sense of satisfaction as well in the sense of community it fosters. If you clear away the litter, people will drop less. We’d love to see more people involved.”
That sense of community was evident in Chapeltown, Leeds, last weekend, when ward councillors were joined by police officers, Leeds Council’s environmental services team and volunteers for a litter pick. Coun Jane Dowson has been organising the picks for 10 years, and will be hosting another next month as part of Clean Up Yorkshire. The area sees a lot of fly-tipping, as well as general litter dropped by people on the streets.
She said: “It costs Leeds a small fortune to clean up – and the problem is, if you don’t clean up, people will feel they can drops things as well.”
Elsewhere in the city, the Clean Up Pudsey group will be meeting outside New Pudsey rail station ticket office at 1.30pm on Sunday June 14, and Litter-Free Guiseley will be collecting every Sunday.
In the East Riding, Rawcliffe Rubbish Riders will meet on the village green at 10am on Saturday June 13.
Parish councillor David McKenna, who organises the group, said: “If you’ve even driven down a rural road, you will see the amounts of rubbish dropped evident. When someone has finished eating or drinking, they simply throw the container out of their car window. People just don’t seem to care. We do it to take pride in our area.”
The Yorkshire Post’s managing editor, Nicola Furbisher, said: “We’ve seen a fantastic response to our call for action since we launched Clean Up Yorkshire – but we want to hear about more groups, schools, and workplaces doing their bit and organising a litter pick next month.”
For a full list of clean-ups so far, and for information on getting involved, log on to the Clean Up Yorkshire section on www.yorkshirepost.co.uk