CID Clean-up Team

Though litter is picked regularly in the Village of Horndean unfortunately no sooner it is cleared than more is dropped. We are hoping to have all ages to help us keep Horndean and surrounding areas as clear of litter as possible. If you are interested in volunteering please contact us.

The group's aim is to make Thornton Heath a cleaner and greener environment for people to live.

CUDS was formed primarily to litter pick around our town and its environs. We do so about 4 times a month for 2 hours each time and then have a cup of tea and the all-important biscuits. We also strip useless bits of turf off areas, dig over, plant bulbs and sow wildflower seeds which we maintain on 2 roundabouts and various other places. At present we have about 28 members. We are not a charity - we are funded by grants for which I apply and have back-up from Dervizes Town Council's Park and Open Spaces team when we can't shift all the stuff we have collected ourselves. When we started over 3 years ago, we were viewed with some suspicion - as in 'Are you all doing Community Payback?' and so forth - interesting to think that a great group of oldies would be doing that! Now, in our bright blue hivis vests emblazed with CUDS on the back, nearly everybody knows who we are - and if they don't, they must have been asleep. We work with local groups - Beavers, the Canoe Club, The Lions at their Fair and recently with The Fulltone Orchestra at their free event in the Market Place. We are also planning our reward - apart from cake, which we have before our summer and Christmas breaks. This time we are going on a day out to visit various gardens in Somerset - it's great to be sociable and many have made firm friends within our group.

The Clean-up Team is part of West Rainton Green Group, which was formed in April 2003. We aim to remove litter from paths, bridleways, road verges and other open space in the vicinity of West Rainton, thereby improving the attractiveness of the local area. The work is undertaken by members of the Green Group in their spare time. We organise about five or six events each year, and members of our team also collect litter on an individual basis from time to time when the need arises. Since the start of the project we have collected 100 - 150 bags a year, and attempt to recycle as much as possible, particularly cans and bottles. Prior to each event contact is made with Durham County Council, who provide a truck to remove all the bags that are collected. We have contributed to national and regional environmental programmes such as Community Service Volunteers 'Action Earth' campaign, City of Sunderland's 'Just Bin It' campaign, Litterfree Durham's 'Big Spring Clean' and the ENCAMS 'Big Tidy Up'. Since 2009 we have worked in partnership with Network Rail to clean up a nearby length of disused railway. As well as litter-picking we also alert Durham County Council and City of Sunderland Council to fly-tipping in the vicinity of the village as soon as it happens. Prompt removal has significantly improved the visual appeal of local lanes and paths. About 300 incidents have been reported since 2003.

We aim to clean up and maintain an urban nature reserve and ancient woodland right in the heart of a built up industrial area. Saltwells Woods and nature reserve is well used and well loved, and was recently saved from having a housing estate built on it, but sadly also neglected. With a renewed vigour now the woods are saved, we vow to make the area as CLEAN & GREEN as we possibly can.

I am the sole member of this group so far and would like to recruit other like-minded, local litter-killers. I've armed myself with a litter-picker-upper stick, bought online for a tenner, and I use recycled, plastic, supermarket bags for the collections. I walk around my village on litter-spotting missions every now and then with my fiance and our baby daughter. Good exercise and the lanes look much nicer. 'Hotspots' for litter are the bus shelter and the playing fields. Great feeling of satisfaction too. My aim is to keep our beautiful village 100% litter-free.

We are a small team of about eight volunteers who look after the planted areas of Uttoxeter Station. We also pick up litter when necessary and monitor the passenger areas. We are organised by the North Staffordshire Community Rail Partnership.

Currently litter picking in the Bellfields area of Guildford. New volunteers welcome for this and all other Guildford areas!

Dedicated to cleaning up the environment (we also make websites) -

We are not really a group! We are a loose alliance! We started as dog walkers and photographers back in the 70s. I would be walking with our hound and stop to take a picture only to find that foreground rubbish had to be removed. This led to always taking bags for rubbish whenever I went out. For larger items (fly-tips etc) I would move them to a suitable roadside location and call the council who were (and are) very obliging. My “comrades” would do the same. This has been going on ever since (our last dog departed some years ago but the walking and photography continue).

My current (well actually for many years) “bete noire” is bagged dog crap. Twas quite funny, some years ago we had a serial crap flinger - it was everywhere: undergrowth, behind walls, brambles, trees etc. So, one weekend we decided to have a blitz on the stuff. We found about 250 bags in the undergrowth along Leafy Lane, over 100 in one location behind a dry stone wall and so on - a total of around 700 bags altogether. I was walking down my road with a bin bag of bagged dog crap over each shoulder when a neighbour stopped me and asked what I had in the bags! Since that time he and his wife have been inveterate litter pickers. The bagged dog crap problem continues. I have picked up about 30 in various locations over the past couple of weeks (this statement will be approximately true whenever you are reading this!). I used to think that this was just one halfwit on the loose, but it appears that this extraordinary behaviour is common practice. I believe (and I have written to Wilts CC about this) that the socially-acceptable practice of bagging dog crap, binning it and dumping it into landfill is an aberration. We have programmes on TV where ologists of various kinds look at ancient middens to find out how people lived. What will future ologists think of our society?

“Look - they used to wrap up their dog crap and bury it - how weird!”

Talking of weird, an odd incident occurred during my 23 Jan 2012 pick-up. I had a good bin-bag full of rubbish which I was attempting to stuff into the waste bin at Northleaze Mobile Home Park when one of a posse of locals shouted over “Oi - what do you think you’re doing?”. A small exchange ensued during which I explained that this was at least a weekly occurrence and I was tidying-up THEIR environment. But they were having none of it - “You can’t do that”, one said. I should say that this lady did offer to put the rubbish in her own bin but by this time the bin-bag was ripped and taking it out again would have seen the rubbish spilled on the ground. Anyway, their objection seemed to be one of possession - it was their bin! This would be fair enough if the bin was ever used but every time I deposit rubbish in that bin, it is empty (as it was on this occasion). It seems that they want theoretical of the bin without ever using it! Anyway my bin-bag was stuffed into the bin; the bin was emptied by the council the next morning and I stuffed a further bag of rubbish into it later that day. It is odd that no account is taken of rubbish lying in the street but clearance of that same rubbish invokes local disapproval!

Another anecdote - for many years, on Sunday mornings when out walking the dog, I would find an empty bottle of South African white wine (always South African) and an empty (70cl) bottle of vodka tightly knotted into a Tescos plastic bag in the lay-by in White Ennox Lane. What a wild time they must have had and what an interesting drive home.

The bizarre things you find when out collecting rubbish! Today, 25 Nov 2012, it was the “Bath & Wells Diocesan News”, No 264, December 1980 (see pic)! This was by the bus stop at the top of Box Hill. I can imagine the Bishop of Bath & Wells waiting for the bus in his vestments with his mitre and crosier (or is that Catholic bishops?) and unfortunately dropping his News on boarding the bus. One of the News items was the 1980 General Synod at which a major issue would be the ordination of women! Now, thirty-two years on, the Synod has been voting on women bishops. What a slow-moving organisation the C of E is!

By the way, the 20,000 or so bags picked up is an estimate, but probably a conservative one. My weekly pick-up is about 8 bags - 8x52x32(years) is about 13,000. I am, no doubt, doing a great disservice to the rest of the Mob in estimating their input as only 7,000 bags - watch out for the update.

The following table started in 2012, which I will try to update regularly, gives an idea of the scale of the ‘problem’.

1 Jan 2012: B3109, Skynet Drive, field edge 4+bags+mattress - called Wilts CC
2 Jan 2012: Leafy Lane, woods and playing fields, 5 bags
3 Jan 2012: Boxfields Road, Box Hill Common 3 bags+ fly tip - called Wilts CC
4 Jan 2012: Quarry Hill, 3 bags + bagged dog crap (BDC)
5 Jan 2012: B3109, A4 to Hare & Hounds 5 bags+ BDC (7 bags)
6 Jan 2012: Leafy Lane & A4 towards Corsham, 5 bags
7 Jan 2012: B3109, Skynet Drive, Park Lane, 4 bags+ BDC
8 Jan 2012: A4 towards Box, 2 bags
9 Jan 2012: B3109 & A4 towards Corsham, 4 bags
12 Jan 2012: Boxfields Road 1 bag+ small fly tip - called Wilts CC
16 Jan 2012: B3109 & A4 towards Corsham, 4 bags
17 Jan 2012: B3109, Skynet Drive, The Carriage Drive, Pound Mead, 7 bags
23 Jan 2012: B3109 & A4 towards Corsham, 3 bags + BDC
24 Jan 2012: B3109 & A4 towards Corsham, 2 bags
28 Jan 2012: Leafy Lane & B3109 from small Fiveways towards Corsham, 1 bag
7 Feb 2012: B3109 and A4 towards Corsham, 1 bag
8 Feb 2012: Leafy Lane and woodland, 2 bags
12 Feb 2012: A4 towards Box, 4 bags
13 Feb 2012: Rudloe Firs and A4 towards Corsham 10 bags (and still stuff remaining)
13 Feb 2012: (later) B3109, 2 bags
21 Feb 2012: B3109, 1 bag
23 Feb 2012: B3109, Leafy Lane, Leafy Lane Playing Fields, 14 bags

Okay, I guess you get the picture so with one month being very much like another I will discontinue the diary. This is a week-on-week, year-on-year occupation. The last pick-up listed above is instructive though - let me elaborate .. Leafy Lane Playing Fields is a 20 acre site at the south-eastern edge of the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). Its users include football clubs, cricket clubs etc but the principal user is AFC Corsham who do an outstanding job in providing opportunities for young people to play football. AFC Corsham runs 15 teams for youngsters between the ages of around 5 to 15/16. You can imagine therefore the number of youngsters provided for and the scores of parents who ferry their charges back and forth from home to ground and back. All fine BUT it appears that not one of the committee, managers and coaches, parents or others gives a hoot about the enormous piles of litter which are left to accumulate week after week. Rather than an AONB, Leafy Lane Playing Fields resembles a rubbish tip. The Rudloe Mob has an onslaught on the accumulation every couple of months or so. Of the 14 bags collected on 23rd February 2012, 10 came from the playing fields and this was just the tip of the iceberg (see photographs of some of what still remains). The state of the playing fields is, I believe, representative of the state of Britain. A 20-acre site frequented by a community of users who deposit rubbish then cheerfully wander through that same rubbish without giving it a second thought. With regard to litter, whether it is at community or national level, in general “we” couldn’t care less.

In the eighties “that cow” (as described by our local MP at the time, the 6th Earl of Kilmorey or Sir Richard Needham) appointed Richard Branson as the uncrowned king of litter - see this 2005 Guardian article on the subject https://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2005/sep/24/comment - but his campaign along with all others, like the long-established Keep Britain Tidy, failed or is failing. It is not good enough to have high-profile personalities, photo-shoots and high-salaried executives with meaningless job descriptions - take a look at the job description for the £40k plus Head of Communications and Marketing at Keep Britain Tidy:

OUTCOMES TO BE DELIVERED
*Implementation and delivery of the five year communications strategy and annual action plan
*Enhanced reputation of Keep Britain Tidy and its sub-brands
*Senior management feel supported through provision of strategic advice and guidance
*New income streams developed, for example, from behaviour change campaigns
*Stakeholders strategically managed and influenced
*Resources managed effectively within budget to meet to customer demand
*Visible leadership to the relevant communications teams as well as across the wider organisation
*Enhanced profile of the organisation with the relevant audiences
*Public membership scheme developed and successfully implemented, when agreed

Talk about Nero fiddling while Rome burns! We are drowning in a sea of rubbish! You can see the outcome of almost 60 years of Keep Britain Tidy in the small community area covered by this Litteraction webpage. YOU ACTUALLY HAVE TO GET OUT THERE AND PICK UP RUBBISH -REGULARLY!