Call for Local Community Heroes

Published February 27, 2017 at 15:54

Rossendale Borough Council, together with Civic Pride groups, are calling on the community to step up and be a local hero as part of the national Great British Spring Clean Event to celebrate where we live.

The Great British Spring Clean event is taking place 3^rd-5^th March and we would like you to get involved. Organise your own community event to give your local area and spring clean.

Civic Pride are hosting events throughout the weekend;

Friday March 3^rd 10am to 12 noon, working in Newchurch, meet the Boars Head Pub car park alongside Rossendale Council’s Operations Team.
Friday March 3rd meeting at 10.30 am on the car park by the Owd Con Club, on Irwell Terrace (approx. 2 hours)
Saturday March 4^th 10am to 1pm, working in Waterfoot, Warth Old Road, off Bacup Road. Meet at main car part behind the bus station.
Saturday March 4th meeting at 10am by the Wall of History Garden on Yorkshire Street, at the bottom of Todmorden Rd (approx. 2 hours), followed by a visit to Stubbylee Park for the opening of the new Stubbylee Pump Track (cycle track) at 1 pm- whilst there we will also litter-pick around the park/New Line area
Sunday March 5th in conjunction with the Haslingden Group, Carrs Industrial Estate. Meet at the junction of Crispin Way, Flip road and Bentwood Road
Sunday March 5th meeting at 11am at the Wall of History Garden, Yorkshire Street

If you can’t help out at either of these events then take them as inspiration and organise your own. There’s lots of budding volunteers out there ready to be a local community hero.

You can register you own community hero event online here; http://www.greatbritishspringclean.org.uk/home/2684

Maintaining clean communities is a real issue for the Council’s budget, every year we spend £290kpa cleaning the borough. Many costs for waste removal could have been easily prevented by people disposing of litter properly. We also spend extra moment on top of this dealing with dog fouling chewing gum removal. As such, picking up discarded litter is a huge cost to the Council, and the support from Civic Pride groups is a huge benefit to our overstretched resources.

Cllr Christine Lamb, Portfolio Holder for Operations said;

“We are very fortunate to have a strong volunteer base in Rossendale, but that needs to keep going to meet demand. Council budgets are stretched more than ever and the way Council’s maintain services will have to change. People taking their own personal responsibility for the cleanliness of their local area is a vital factor in this.”

Rossendale boasts a wide variety of dedicated community volunteers who work tirelessly cleaning up our town streets from litter. The Council has a long standing and successful relationship with Civic Pride and we support them in the work they do like they vitally support us.

It was encouraging to read comments in our recent resident survey that appreciated the strong volunteering nature of Rossendale and how this could be harnessed to help support local services.

Chris Blomerley, Chair of Civic Pride welcomed the call for volunteers saying;

“Pride groups are establishing themselves across the valley but there are still areas that would benefit from more volunteers. We are always prepared to help new groups establish themselves by providing advice but we just don’t have the resources to assist with the physical work. If you’d like to discuss how to start a group please email info@civic-pride.org.uk for details”

Council resources are tighter than ever and funds are diminishing, we would encourage everyone to take some personal responsibility and look after the place they live by not discarding litter, dropping chewing gum, fly tipping or leaving dog mess behind.

Sam Plum, Director of Communities at Rossendale Council said;

“Living in a clean community is huge priority for the Council and its residents; that message came across loud and clear in our recent resident survey. We are working hard to promote positive communities that support each other, take personal responsibility and enhance Rossendale as a place to live and visit. Events like this are just the start; we will soon be launching a new community initiative project which we hope people will take us up on so keep an eye out for that!”

Last year’s Clean for the Queen activities saw a whopping 231 bags of litter collected by patriotic litter pickers over the 2 day event.

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