Making A Real Difference In The Community
A local councillor decided to take action and bring a positive change to the environment of the estate where he lives. It started with a simple idea, then some prayer, and three years later more had been achieved than he could have imagined! Here’s his story:
My wife and I have been litterpicking in our neighbourhood once a week for three-and-a-half years now. We still meet folk we’ve never seen before and have even had people knocking on our door asking for help because they didn’t know who else to turn to. After a while, the charity that runs the local Community Centre noticed our activities and I joined their committee and a year later I was chairing it. We managed to secure grants of over £15,000 – with another £40,000 promised for the next few years – for improvements to the area. In May 2015 I was elected as a Parish and District Councillor and am now an ‘official’ litter-picker (not a nit-picker though!). I am devoted to serving the community I represent and people can approach me very easily whenever I am walking around with my rubbish bag and grabber. It has built trust and openness. Dealing with housing issues, standing up for local residents and being a listening ear are now part of daily life for me as a Councillor. Over the weekend of 4 - 6 March 2016, Country Life magazine and Keep Britain Tidy are running a campaign called ‘Clean for the Queen’ as part of the celebrations for her 90th birthday. When I told our Head of Service about this our Council soon signed up for it. This will be a great opportunity for people to get out and make a difference to their local environment.
‘Everyone has a responsibility to keep their community tidy and this campaign provides us with a great chance to protect our wildlife and improve the quality of our streets and public spaces. I hope it will help lead to a lasting legacy of a cleaner, tidier Britain.’ – Environment Minister Rory Stewart MP About 2.25 million pieces of litter are dropped on the streets of the UK every day. Thirty million tons of rubbish is collected from England’s streets each year. That’s enough to fill Wembley Stadium four times over!
Another initiative has brought together an Action Group to focus on our local estate and securing investment to improve the streets, remove potholes, provide new fencing, driveways and parking areas, plant bulbs and create a new play area. We’re also working to establish a Credit Union and provide more skills training; our estate is in the lowest 800 in the country for education, skills and training. This is another crucial area needing transformation and change.
Taking pride in where you live and caring for others can make a real difference. Just a thought can change your world if you prayerfully put it into action...
More information can be found at www.cleanforthequeen.co.uk