Big cheer for the Big Clean Up
More than 70 volunteers joined a group of young mums from the
White Road Estate in Chatham to help carry out a clean up of the
area.
In March this year a band of mums
started an action group called the White Road Neighbourhood Panel,
to reflect the area in which they live in a positive light.
Danielle Amusa, who led the Big
Clean Up in the run up to National Keep Britain Tidy Week, said:
"mhs homes asked me if I would be interested in doing something for
National Keep Britain Tidy Week following the interest I had shown
in becoming one of their Estate Champions. The White Road
Neighbourhood Panel wanted to team up with them, so I jumped at the
idea. Other residents were keen to tackle the litter which
was blighting the area and that spurred me on even more to try and
get everyone working together. mhs homes helped us with posters,
health and safety stuff, gloves and litter pickers, colour coded
plans and drinks and snacks. They also provided a big skip.
Southern Water provided us with water bottles for all the children
and loads of cakes and doughnuts which the children loved. I
was overwhelmed with the response we got from the council,
the schools, churches and our councillors. The number of
people there was great and the weather was fine which contributed
to an amazing day!"
The clean up focused on the eight
circles covering the whole of the White Road Estate. We
managed to collect a massive 28 full bags of litter plus
recyclables, as well as lots of items which were far too large to
be bagged.
Trudy McCallum, Area Housing Officer
for mhs homes said, “The Big Tidy Up by the charity ‘Keep Britain
Tidy’ aims to get every one out on the streets cleaning up
their corner of the community in the country’s biggest ever litter
pick. Thousands of people across the country are already
taking part to clean up their patch and we have certainly done our
bit today to help make this the biggest tidy up ever in this
area!”
Councillor Vince Maple, Ward Councillor and
Leader of Medway Labour Group said, "It is great to see the
community coming together to make such a difference. What is
particularly pleasing is the varied partners from mhs homes and
Southern Water to Bishop of Rochester Academy and Glencoe School
all playing their part. It's a brilliant effort by Danielle
and the whole White Road Neighbourhood Panel for being the spark
for this great day of activity."