Friends of Brislington Brook (FOBB)

We are a group of residents from BS4 who look after, maintain and enhance Brislington Brook and its environs, in Nightingale Valley and Saint Annes woods. We carry out litter picks, coppicing, tree planting and water testing. We also put on community events, walks and wildlife features.

The Love North Chingford Group is a Community Group formed to help improve and enhance the environment in North Chingford, particularly Station Road and the Conservation area. Three litter picks were arranged in 2018 and more will be undertaken in 2019.

Starting from a group of two, and hoping to grow, the mantra is 'if it's being dropped, then it needs picking up' ...we are going to fulfil this task, and hope this encourages less dropping, and more picking! If you see rubbish, don't tell us, pick it up yourself!

Who are we? We are an environmental group undertaking planting in our village, litter picks, promoting reduction in Co2 and smart driving, and working with the local community to make our village a litter free area. We deliver over 1700 newsletters around our village promoting our message and work with Thringstone Primary School and the local brownie group various events, including a scarecrow festival in June 2011 which brought together all sectors of the community . We held another scarecrow event, in conjunction with Thringstone Methodists, on Saturday 6th July 2013. Our chairman litter picks daily, and is helped by others who litter pick regularly. We try, where possible, to recycle items which can be recycled. We petitioned for extra recycling bins in our village and now have two tin and plastic bottle recycling points and a glass recycling point, and are currently asking for the council to consider ways of recycling acceptable items put in roadside litter bins. Between February 2013 and the end of February 2014, we removed 1,958 bags of litter from the village and woodlands, which we feel is a staggering amount. We have also worked with other groups on environmental issues in the village, and were part of the steering group that saw Thringstone Youth Club win the Children and Young People\\\\\\\'s Green Footprints Award in 2011 for their mural project. We have taken over several flowerbeds and previously untidy and unused areas in the village for planting and offer historical and environmental walks around the village. Please see our website which is www.friends-of-thringstone.org.uk for further details on our group, plus details on our constitution, health and safety policy, equal opportunities policy, parental consent statements and volunteer expenses statement. You can also see on that site details of all our publications. What have we done? In 2009 we won the NW Leicestershire Green Footprints Awards, were awarded an outstanding achievement certificate by East Midlands In Bloom in 2009, and won a gold and silver in the village achievement awards run by the Rural Community Council. In 2010 and were finalists in the Community and Partnerships category of the NWLDC\\\\\\\'s Green Footprints Awards and again in 2013. In 2011 we won The Queen\\\\\\\'s Award for Voluntary Service, something of which we are very proud, especially since 2011 was the European Year of Volunteering,. In 2015 we won the Big Tidy Award at the Keep Britain Tidy Jubilee Awards 2015. In 2021 we won the Leicestershire Live Environmental Heroes Award and also won the Community Organisation Award 2021 with Leicestershire Community Champions. We have a facebook page, and we are also on twitter - address is @Thringstone2. In 2019, our chairman was awarded a British Empire Medal for service to Thringstone and in September 2019, her dog, who accompanied her on all her litter picks, was awarded a commendation from the PDSA.

Our groups main aim is to improve the local environment so that it looks cleaner and more presentable as the litter in the area is spoiling the look of where we live and work. We would like to bring together the working community of the business park in order to clean things up a bit by keeping the area litter free. We feel that this would be a great opportunity to meet some of our neighbours, get some gentle exercise and achieve something really valuable at the same time.

OxClean is an Oxford Civic Society initiative dedicated to cleaning up Oxford and keeping our city clean and tidy all year round. The overall objective is to establish our streets and public spaces as places designed for the safe enjoyment of the people. Our strategy is to both clean up accumulated litter and rubbish and to prevent the problem occurring in the first place. OxClean also runs a Schools Education Campaign and is mounting other campaigns to change attitudes. See website for details

We started as Weeley Wombleys in 2017 as so many residents had expressed their concerns about the amount of litter appearing everywhere, and we are now part of Weeley in Bloom. There are several take-aways in the area, and the detritus was mounting up so much Tendring District Council couldn\'t keep on top of it. We litter pick on the first Monday morning of the month, and there is usually a hard-core of about 15 residents who pick regularly. We also encourage residents to keep their frontages as clear of rubbish as possible and the area has seemed a lot tidier since we started. We have been into the local School wearing our home-made WeeleyWombley costumes, together with McDonalds (our Corporate partner), to encourage the primary school children to litter pick, and to take their litter home with them. McDonalds also very kindly have a member of staff litter picking around the Village practically every day, which is very much appreciated.

SEEITPICKITBINIT, has been set up with the aim of bringing local people together to take action in making the kettering area a cleaner community. To donate to our volunteer fundraising efforts, especially for waders and gloves, please contact me via the email link on my group page. This year, after the recent Blue Planet documentary, we'll focus passionately on battling the appalling disaster of Marine and River plastic pollution, throughout the waterways of the Nene Valley. We'll be holding picks every week, raising money for Irchester Animals in Need and recycling as much of the plastic litter as we can, in the River Nene, River Ise and Slade Brook. WE HAVE JUST SECURED SOME CORPORATE FUNDING, SO OUR EQUIPMENT WISH LIST IS LOOKING GOOD. WE HOPE TO BUY A SMALL LITTER PICKING BOAT FOR THE RIVER CAMPAIGN AND SOME SYRINGE PROOF GLOVES. TO SUPPORT SEEITPICKITBINIT'S CAMPAIGN TO TAKE BACK CONTROL OF ENGLANDS RIVERS, ROADS AND GREEN SPACES, YOU CAN HELP US BUY EQUIPMENT OR DONATE TO OUR NOMINATED CAUSE USING THE OFFICIAL PAYPAL LINK FOR OUR GROUP. https://www.paypal.me/seeitpickitbinit Go to paypal.me Go to www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/cleanupmarineplastic Go to www.gofundme.com/marine-plastic-river-rescue-uk SeeItPickItBinIt is a voluntary community litter picking group, based in Kettering Northamptonshire, which has since its creation in 2011, removed and recycled over 10 Tonnes or 10 cars in weight of litter, from our beautiful county. In addition to regular litterpicks on my days off from work each week, every year we hold a 1 Tonne litter pick, which not only aims to clean up the green spaces and river habitats of our community, but also has begun to raise money for charities at the same time. The first two years of sponsorship saw us raise hundreds for Children In Need. This year we have just smashed our litter target with 1270kg and we raised an amazing £500 for a local animal rescue centre in Irthlingborough. The litter situation has never been worse in the history of the United Kingdom. Every day, people dump rubbish from their cars and in the streets. It is difficult to confront, but the heart of the problem can be explained in terms of ownership. The British public has increasingly retreated in to its living rooms, to enjoy its supermarket food, sit on its sofas, in centrally heated houses, fixated on computers, phones or tvs. This life is incredibly comfortable and almost impossible from which to break free. Litter happens because we draw a line at our front doors and our car windows. On the other side of that line is not our problem, so why would we care? Every day we see litter in front of our own doorsteps, on the street and in our parks. Why don't we just pick it up? The reason is because we don't see it as ours, even when it is in our own street, blown from our own bins. Once it crosses that line, we have society's permission to walk by, oblivious and guilt free. One day, I started to see litter. It was everywhere I looked. For years I had complained about it, but I had thought of it as a totally external problem to my life. It's the council, it's someone else's responsibility. One day at work, I did the unthinkable, I got so wound up, I stepped through the invisible forcefield that stops people from departing from the norm. I picked up a plastic bottle and put it in a nearby bin. I almost expected someone to shout at me or to hear sirens, but I didn't. By picking up 1 single bit of litter, I had left that place, better than I had found it, I had already succeeded at making a small, but real difference. After that, I picked up first 10, then 100, then 10,000 pieces of toxic plastic at a time. It felt amazing, my life for the first time, had some meaning beyond feeding my face and being only concerned with maintaining my comfort zone and the comfort zone of those around me. People expressed shock and even warned me that I might get in trouble for breaking the rules. As it turned out, picking up litter has only ever resulted in good things, great conversations, engagement, excitement and encouragement from others, who didn't know such a thing was possible. This year I picked up about 2 Tonnes. During the 2018 litter season, I am challenging myself to remove 5 tonnes. It will definitely not be easy, especially as I've recently lost both parents and my last surviving grandparent. However, litter picking is a way to know that you are part of something bigger, so it helps you through the tough times. Not only does it raise money, it protects and nurtures animals and habitats. Less litter reduces crime and anti-social behaviour, reduces council and government spending. Best of all, it crucially shows others, not just with words, but with concrete powerful actions. I don't think that I'll fix the plastic problem on my own. However any publicity about doing something to tackle a problem that affects us all, is a step in the right direction. Next time you get home and see that plastic bottle or crisp packet in front of your house, just ask yourself, am I a leader or a follower. What happens next will give you the answer. Wonderful news, the McDonalds Drive-In restaurant in Kettering, has generously sponsored 5 bins along Northfield Avenue, in order to mitigate their impact on the community. By working in conjunction with Amanda McDade from Kettering council's street cleansing team, we managed to lobby the food retailer and secured their support in tackling this significant challenge for our community We currently litter pick any area around Kettering and beyond, as and when it looks bad enough to need it. Last years 1 Ton sponsorship raised £500 Nanna's animal shelter in Irthlingborough. This year we hope to raise money for a variety of other litter picking volunteers and groups around the UK. Our focus this year is on river and marine plastics, so we'll be hitting the rivers and lakes, recycling as much as we can, to keep Britain tidy. *********************2017 event target achieved******************** ************************************1270KG**************************** *************************18 picks-100 hours picking**************** **************************Fundraising total £500******************** *************************************************************************** ***********************2018 1 Tonne Litter Pick********************** *********************************92KG************************************ ********************************9 Picks*********************************** *********************Fundraising total £535************************** Future areas of interest will concentrate on the heavy litter problems along the River Ise/Nene and country lanes between Kettering and Thrapston. If you can spare an hour or two, please feel free to email our group to be a part of the next event and help us show that our community is worth caring about. THE A14 FROM WEST BOUND BETWEEN THRAPSTON AND KETTERING IS MISSING, UNDER THE MOUNTAIN OF PLASTIC THAT IS STREWN ALONG ITS VERGES. IF I'M FEELING A BIT CRAZY ONE WEEK, I MIGHT ATTEMPT TO CLEAN IT ALL UP. Every pound that the council doesn't need to spend on picking up litter will be spent on much more deserving projects that effect all of us such as policing, education and health. Several organisations have been extremely helpful in supplying us with bin liners, hi-vis vests and litter grabbers. Many thanks to Amanda McDade, the community litter picking liaison on the council's street cleansing team and to Lindsay Richmond at Helping Hands for the amazing Streetmaster Pro pickers and his much appreciated sponsorship. Please check out the pictures in the gallery, which shows just how much of a difference removing the litter has made at some of the nominated sites. Any help is very much appreciated.

A litter picking group covering Beam Parklands / Old Dagenham Park. Looking for more volunteers so we can over a larger area.

Friends of Riverside Park was set up following a failed attempt to build a water park on the land which is owned by East Sussex County Council & Lewes District Council and now known as Riverside Park, Newhaven. The site was up until the late 1970s/early 1980s a landfill site for the town. Once the site was full to capacity it was capped and left to nature. We now have a wonderful array of wildlife and recently funds were spent by the local Councils to make improvements including a properly laid circular path, benches dotted around the park, a bird viewing platform, owl nest box and various hibernacula and scrapes. Scrub has been managed to improve the quality of the soil. All this has been done with the help and assistance of the Friends of Riverside Park who work as a go-between the Community who use the Park and the Councils. As part of our ongoing support we organise monthly litter picks to safeguard the natural environment & are making other small improvements to the area including more litter bins and hopefully seating.