PARISH PICKERS COPYTHORNE

We have 26 active litter pickers each one of whom takes responsibility for a stretch of road or an area of green space. We meet occasionally to review tactics and to swop ideas. We have a massive litter pick once a year to shift an area of accumulated rubbish. We have good relations with the Parish Council and the local authority who are great at clearing flytipping when we inform them.

From our official starting date of 17/6/17 we have grown to a point where we are now a fully constitued group, and have a busy and active committee of 11 people including myself as chair, our secretary, our treasurer and 8 other members including one of our local city councillors. We are officially recognised by Leeds City Council,and work with their approval and encouragement in the form of much assistance and advice the council's Parks Department. We have an online Facebook membership of just over 370 members, and fully expect this to grow as we develop a stronger presence in our community. As well as other conservation related work and activities, we have a regular Monday night litter park, and for this reason we woild like to request that we can become officially affilated to your campaign.u

To supplement the parish council litter-pickers in order to create a litter-free village and to promote a sense of pride in where we live. It would be great to have new members join the group.

To safeguard the environment of Stokes Bay and preserve and protect the flora and fauna within the area as well as providing practical assistance in maintaining a clean and safe environment in the area.

Group of dedicated volunteers who regularly meet to clean North Gare beach.

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.

This group intends to make the areas around Bradshaw Hall Primary School an example how our public open space, roads, play grounds etc. should look like in terms of cleanliness. Currently, the area is in a relatively good condition when compared with some other areas across Greater Manchester which have been terribly affected by littering, dog fouling and fly tipping. However, there are still a lot of work to be done and a lot of mind-sets to change that it's each individual's responsibility to clean up their own mess.

We aim to prevent and discourage litter and ensure its removal as rapidly and effectively as possible, in order to maintain a clean and attractive environment in and around Tiverton. We work with all age groups especially children. We use publicity, schools campaigns and competitions, partnership with local councils, churches and by setting examples with public litter picks.

To improve and enhance Wycombe Marsh by way of environmental improvements for current and future residents and visitors to Wycombe Marsh. We work with residents, local authorities, other agencies, local businesses and social housing providers to identify and improve the area by way of regular litter picking and initiating and maintaining, with the owner’s permission, gardening activities on small undeveloped, uncared for areas of land.

Fishponds Clean Streets was established in 2016 and is run by a few volunteers with the aim of helping keep the streets cleaner of litter. There was an extended period owing to COVID restrictions when we were not able to operate, however we are back up and running again now. We usually meet for an hour and a half on a Saturday morning once a month and always publicise our litter picks here on this page, where we also report on our activity after each litter pick. Thanks to those who joined in on Sat 5th Feb and to Rachel for coming along with her family. Between us we collected 7 sacks of rubbish and 6 of recyclables. We hope to meet again in March, so do keep an eye on this page for updates! In the meantime, if you are new to litter picking in Fishponds and interested in getting involved, please contact us at: CleanerFishponds@gmail.com for more information. Louise, Pete, Carol & Stuart