The Friends of Mile End Park

A voluntary group helping to keep Poldhu Beach as nature intended. We organise regular beach cleaning sessions, work with the National Trust to mantain and improve the environs whilst ensuring conservation is our watch word.

We are a constitutionalised group which is part of the Natural Kirklees organisation. We organise litter picks in our town and have undertaken renovation projects such as revamping disused planters.

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 meet on a Sunday morning, every other month, to walk around the whole village to clean up. There are over 20 volunteer names on our list!

We aim to improve the local environment and work in conjunction with the local councillors. 2700 bags collected in 2018

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.

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 original Fylde Coast beach care group, we look after the shingle beach between the Five Bar Gate and The Venue at Cleveleys. Our core activities are a four weekly community beach clean and a monthly meeting - and throughout the year we do lots of other things to help to improve this beautiful stretch of coast for the people who use it and the wildlife which lives here. Oh, and we have a lot of fun and make a lot of friends - the community which we create is every bit as important as the litter which we pick up! For the dates of forthcoming beach cleans and events please go to: - our website at www.rossallbeach.org.uk - our Facebook page at Rossall Beach Buddies - Twitter @RossBeachBudds

Litter picking and much much more in Stanmore Country Park, Stanmore Common & Ponds. Green Gym work outs can include helping volunteer wardens with various projects, including shrub clearance, bramble cutting-back, unwanted shoot removal and any other environmental jobs under guidance! We have guided walks with knowledgeable wardens and keen amateurs. This is an opportunity to meet new people and enjoy quiet and lovely natual environments in north west London. All this and litter picking too! Come and join us!! The litter-picking is just one means of keeping these rural areas pleasant for all kinds of aminal users including human ones!

We are a group of like minded volunteers who clear litter within the Tiptree village and surrounding lanes and woodlands on a regular basis.