Y-Nots! Litter Squad

Volunteer group organised by the local Village Hall Committee. We pledge to fight back against the thoughtless discarding of litter from passing vehicles and to try to take action to identify fly tippers and repeat offenders.

To make my area cleaner and more presentable.

To keep area respectable tidy and free of litter and to bring awareness of impact of littering.

Looking to start this group for Kings Hill

Walking group

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.

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.

We are a revitalised 'clean-up' group of some 20 years' standing which incorporated collaboration with other agencies such as the Environment Agency, TCV, Highways and Groundwork as well as improving communication with our LA, local farmers and schools. Our aims broadened to include two new elements, namely education on litter and LA backed health walks. The latter has enabled people to enjoy our rural pathways, which are now regularly litter-picked, and at the same time build up their stamina in walking for health. In 2011, through fundraising, we were able to purchase two community notice boards to further publicise local events and amenities and our aims. We were very grateful to Groundwork Merseyside for installing them. It continues to be very satisfying to see people reading the notices displayed there and to see some new helpers on our litter-picks and new walkers on our health walks as a result. Both noticeboards were renovated this year, 2018 with help from a grant from Cronton Parish Council, for which we thank them. Our LA, Knowsley MBC, has always been supportive but In recent years, due to funding cuts to LAs we have had reduced contact with them, although they continue to help us by removing the bags of litter we collect on our biannual litter picks. We forged links with one of our neighbouring LAs, Halton, with a view to liaising on littering of our border areas. They provided us with litter-pickers and bags. This has made a big difference to our effectiveness. Updated 24.3.2018

We are a team of litterpicking ninjas dedicated to keeping our beautiful town.... Beautiful

Ainsdale Civic Society comprises an active group of people whose common aim is to make Ainsdale a better place to live, work and play.