Regular litter picking event. Focus will be Chapel Lane and surrounding streets
Meet at The Farmer’s Arms
New volunteers are most welcome to come along – but please familiarise yourselves with the safety guidance first.
Please try to arrive at the meeting point no later than 15 minutes from the start time. Organisers of each event will typically litter pick after the 15 minute period has elapsed, returning to the meeting point up to an hour later.
Since the last news update we have:
a) Continued with our twice monthly litter picks :
6 volunteers met at Banks Square on Wednesday 6th October. We covered the town centre and collected at least 8 bags.
4 volunteers were out on Saturday 9th October. 3 met at Lacey Green Park and covered the surrounding area. The 4th covered Knutsford Road, Alderley Road, the town centre, Manchester Road and Styal Road. 7 bags were collected altogether.
As always, we were pleased to welcome some new faces
b) Continued with our solo picks.
c) Welcomed a volunteer (Alistair) who was given time off as under his employer’s (Pets At Home) scheme.
d) Held a committee meeting. The main focus was the structure around sponsorship by local companies. Wilmslow Town Council has been our major sponsor recently with a significant grant. We agreed on a standard approach to co-sponsorship from other local companies whereby they will donate £50 and be given a window sticker and a mention on our webpage :
We have already signed up Castletons Accountants to this scheme.
Hickory’s Smokehouse are also being considered a co-sponsor because they are providing us with a room for meetings, refreshments etc. They are very keen to help us as much as they can.
e) Responded to a business called “Warner House” who are exploring the possibility of “Employee volunteer days”
Hope to see you at our November picks – new volunteers welcome.
Since the last news update we have:
a) Continued with our twice monthly litter picks :
9 volunteers met in Summerfields Car Park on Wednesday 1st September and picked in the vicinity of Dean Row Rd. We collected 9 bags altogether plus a wooden board.
At least 14 volunteers met at The Farmer’s Arms on Saturday 4th September. We covered the surrounding area as well as venturing further afield and picking at the back of the row of shops from Sainsburys to Hoopers, Sainsbury’s car park, the area around Gorsey Bank school, Mobberley Road, Adlington Road, Hawthorn Street, Little Lindow etc. We estimate that 16 bags were collected altogether. We would like to thank Chelsea Flowers for providing hot drinks to our volunteers after the pick.
We were delighted to see some new faces. Well done everyone.
b) Continued with our solo picks.
c) Informed ANSA of fly tipping incidents – e.g. a mattress on the A34
d) Continued to liaise a local business about a potential big sponsorship deal
e) Responded to a contact made by the manager of Hickory’s who is interested in offering support to the Clean Team.
f) Started a project to encourage local businesses to sponsor us by donating £50 to our funds. In return they will receive a window sticker and a mention on our website. Thanks to our business co-ordinator Peter for his efforts on this.
g) Designed 2 separate prototypes for a trolley which could support 2 bags. This would not only assist those members who struggle with the weight of the litter but would also allow us to more easily recycle cans, plastic bottles and glass bottles. Recycling is something we ought to be encouraging more of. Some of us take a smaller carrier sized bag with us – and collect cans and plastic bottles (which are very light) which we can take home and put in our grey bins. The huge energy required to extract aluminium is really bad for the environment – so it will be great if we can help make sure that this kind of waste is not “single use”.
h) Started to consider how we might re-work a banner which could be used to advertise our activities
i) Battled with bureaucracy to try and change the committee members who can sign off cheques – due to recent changes to the committee.
Hope to see you at our October picks – new volunteers welcome.
Since the last news update we have:
a) Continued with our twice monthly litter picks:
Held a litter pick at The Honey Bee on Wednesday 4th August. We covered the surrounding area including Altrincham Road down towards the airport tunnels. Lovely to see some very young helpers.
Despite the poor weather, 9 volunteers met at Bank Square on Saturday 7th August. We covered the town centre including the area around the railway station, the Leisure Centre, Church Street, the roundabout near the King William pub, Manchester Road. At least 12 bags were collected. We were delighted to welcome 3 new volunteers to this pick.
Well done everyone.
b) Continued with our solo picks.
c) Responded to interest from some new volunteers
d) Responded to a request from a local brownie group to borrow our equipment
e) Re-organised and cleaned the equipment held in our storage bunker
f) Liaised with a local business about a potential sponsorship deal
g) Written an article that we hope to get published in the “Inside Wilmslow” magazine
h) Had an article about us published on wilmslow.co.uk :
https://www.wilmslow.co.uk/news/article/21762/cleanteam-are-back-sprucing-up-the-streets
i) Responded to a contact made by Radio Manchester about a possible interview with the Clean Team.
Hope to see you at our September picks – new volunteers welcome.
Regular litter picking event. Focus will be the town centre including the area around Sainsburys.
Meet at Bank Square
New volunteers are most welcome to come along – but please familiarise yourselves with the safety guidance first.
Please try to arrive at the meeting point no later than 15 minutes from the start time. Organisers of each event will typically litter pick after the 15 minute period has elapsed, returning to the meeting point up to an hour later.
Regular litter picking event. Focus will be Altrincham Road and the airport tunnels.
Meet in the Honey Bee car park.
New volunteers are most welcome to come along – but please familiarise yourselves with the safety guidance first.
Please try to arrive at the meeting point no later than 15 minutes from the start time. Organisers of each event will typically litter pick after the 15 minute period has elapsed, returning to the meeting point up to an hour later.
Firstly – Coronavirus is everone’s main focus at the moment. The committee are considering the impact on our activities and more information will be issues soon.
14 volunteers met at Summerfields on Wednesday March. We collected a big haul of 29 bags. We covered Colshaw Drive and the roads off it, Dean Row Rd, the area around the footbridge leading over the bypass to Lincoln Rd, the Lidl/Wilmslow Tavern/Village Centre areas and Manchester Rd (from Stanneylands Rd traffic lights to Wilmslow Garden Centre). Other volunteers covered Holly Road South & North and Water Lane/Altrincham Rd in vicinity of Fire Station/Chili Banana. During the Summerfields pick, we met the local PCSO (Kerry) who told us that the residents association were planning some clean ups too – fantastic news. Since then, Ellie from “Friends of Colshaw Farm Parks” has been in touch – so we will be liaising with them for future events. For future picks at Summerfields, we need to be aware that the Lidl car park has different regulations to the main Summerfields one. One of our volunteers picked up a parking fine as a result.
9 volunteers met at Bank Square on Saturday 7th March. We collected 14 bags altogether. We focussed on Bank Square, the Railway station, the Leisure Centre, Bollin Link Road, Alderley Road, Knutsford Road, Chapel Lane, Grove St and the area surrounding Bank Square.
There have been a lot of solo picks recently too. The grand total for the month was at least 54 bags. Well done everyone.
Gorsey Bank junior school borrowed our equipment so that they could do some litter picks which their “The Department for Environment” organised. A really great effort and so good to see young people learning about litter – and it sounds like they all enjoyed it.
We are also in discussions with 1st Wilmslow guides about lending them our equipment. They have done litter picks before – and we are happy to support them.
The committee held a meeting in February – where we started the planning for the annual Spring Clean. We reviewed our financial situation and are able to progress the purchase of some new equipment.
The Spring Clean will run from Wednesday 1st -> Tuesday 7th April. There will be 2 extra picks making 4 altogether. We are also hoping to meet for drinks.
We have booked Wilmslow Library for our AGM on Mon 18th May from 19.30 -> 21:30. A formal notification will be sent to our members nearer the time.
We have contacted Cheshire East (ANSA) to request that they clean up all the litter pick on the verges of the A34 (the bypass). We are unable to litter pick for safety reasons. Even ANSA can only do it when the road is shut. For some reason they don’t schedule a regular clean up – and so we have to ask them to do it when it gets really bad. They have responded promptly though – and we have had confirmation that the clean up is planned for the week commencing 20th April – great news.
We have contacted Wilmslow Town Council to see if the overgrown moss on the pavement near the Ford dealership can be tidied up as it is very overgrown and doesn’t give a good impression at one of the main gateways into the town.
“Alderley Edge In Bloom” have contacted us about their plans for Keep Britain Tidy’s Spring Clean event – and the possibility of joining forces for a litter pick on Heyes Lane.
One of our commitee members, Helen, has been talking to Costa about the possibility of a bin outside their premises. Cheshire East (ANSA) do not have any budget for new bins unfortunately. Helen had a positive conversation with Verity who has been the Manager at Wilmslow Costa for 3 years. Verity explained that a rubbish bin is on order for their outside area – which their staff will empty. She wants it installed quickly because she gets complaints from the adjoining property owners at the rear when Costa customers lean over to use the neighbouring CEC residential bins. Verity seems well aware of community facilities and was saddened to lose the nearby pear sculpture when it was twice vandalised. She has had plants stolen from tubs she has planted up. She plans to send two members of staff to join in a Wednesday Litter Pick in due course – as part of their firm’s commitment to the local community. Helen will alert Verity about the next suitable litter pick. This all sounds very promising.
All in all a very busy and productive month, It is unclear how things will pan out of the next few months but we will keep you informed and the health safety of our volunteers is our main concern.
10 volunteers assembled, at the Parish Hall on Wednesday 5th February. We focused on the surrounding area. The area around the train station is perpetually bad for litter – we will discus whether a new bin is required in the vicinity.
We were delighted to welcome a new volunteer : Tim.
We collected at least 15 bags.
9 volunteers met at The Honey Bee on Saturday 8th February. We covered Altrincham Road between the airport tunnels and Waters. One of our volunteers, Peter, then headed off to the area near the high school to finish some work that started on Wednesday.
We were pleased to see that the vegetation has been cut back on the pavements leading form the Honey Bee, down the hill, to the Britannia Hotel. This has been a problem in the past as it was so overgrown (on the same side of the road as the hotel) and made it difficult to walk along the pavement.
We have also alerted ANSA to some industrial debris, on the verge of carriageway to side of the roundabout leading towards the airport tunnels, and to a dangerous hole where a drain cover has been lifted.
We collected at least 14 bags plus some recyclables and hubcaps.
Thanks to some solo picks, our total for the last month is at least 41 bags.
In other news :
The Deputy Head of School at Gorsey Bank and one of their pupil groups, “The Department for Environment”, are organising a Litter Pick week for all pupils (and hopefully some parents too!) w/c 24th Feb. The youngest pupils will be collecting litter in the school grounds, but some of the KS2 pupils we will be venturing further afield to Carnival Field, Lindow Common and perhaps into town too. We will be lending some equipment to the school and hopefully some display materials to provoke discussion around the damaging effects of litter.
We will be holding a committee meeting on 18th February. Agenda items include planning the annual Spring Clean, defining committee roles and setting a date for the AGM.
A Happy New Year to all our volunteers and supporters.
We normally arrange 2 litter picks every month : on the first Wednesday and following Saturday As January’s Wednesday pick would have fallen on New Years Day this year, we moved it a week later.
So, our first pick of 2020 was on Saturday 4th January. We had an amazing turnout with 16 volunteers – possibly a record. We met at Bank Square and spread out in all directions. Having so many volunteers allowed us to cover most of the town centre – which is looking a lot tidier as a result.
We were concerned by the amount of litter in and around Broadway Meadows car park – and the lack of bins. We have tried and failed in the past to get a new bin installed (due to a lack of funding) but we have asked ANSA (Cheshire East’s contractor) once again. ANSA confirmed that the request is still on their list for consideration. We have also asked ANSA to clean up the far end of the car park where the recycling bins used to be – and they have agreed to see to this. We have also asked them to remove a fly tipped tyre and paint from the bottom end of the car park.
We collected at least 29 bags, a tyre and at least I bag of recyclables at the Saturday pick.
Our second pick of the year was on Wednesday 8th January. 8 volunteers met outside the gates of the park in Lacey Green on Barlow Moor Road. We covered the whole of the park area, Barlow Moor Road, Lacey Green, halfway down Egerton Road, Cranford Road and Mount Pleasant – not a bad morning’s work.
We collected 12 bags of litter making it at least 41 in total at our 2 scheduled picks.
In addition, there have been a lot of solo picks recently which have helped us get off to a flying start in 2020 – with 56 bags collected altogether in the past month. Great work everyone.
The committee are going to discuss the possibility of some A boards which we can put up when we are doing litter picks – to raise awareness and attract new volunteers.
We made contact with “Run North West Limited” to discuss the issue of plastic bottle littering after their recent “Festive 10k” run
We are trying to help a Handforth resident who raised a concern about the amount of litter being thrown from cars on the bypass towards the airport. We have contacted ANSA to see if they can provide any further information / assistance.
On a sunny and crisp Wednesday morning, 9 volunteers met at The Farmer’s Arms on Chapel Lane. We covered most of the roads in the area, with one member going off to do parts of Altrincham Road, as unfinished business from the last event based at The Honey Bee. We collected at least 13 bags of litter. We also picked up a surprising number of nitrous oxide canisters in the gutter along Buckingham Road.
Six volunteers met at Summerfieds on Saturday 7th December. We covered both verges down to the A34 bypass, Colshaw Drive, Malpas Drive and Wheelock Close as well as Dean Row Road as far as the junction with Manchester Road. We collected a total of 11 bags of litter. We also took an additional bag of recyclable items (crushed plastic bottles and aluminium cans) away for domestic recycling.
One of our volunteers (Liz) discovered, on a solo pick, that the clean up after the recent 10k running event had not been very effective – with a lot of discarded, plastic water bottles. We are unsure who organised this event. Wilmslow Running Club are normally very good after their half marathon – so maybe this new event is organised by a different organisation? Anyway – we have made Cheshire East aware.
Our total bag count for the year is 446 – an amazing effort.
The total number pf bags we have collected, in the 6 years since we were formed, has gone over the 3,000 mark. This is a remarkable achievement for a volunteer run organisation – although we would much rather be seeing a reduction in the amount of litter out there.
Please note that our first scheduled litter pick of 2020 is on Saturday 4th January. Our Wednesday pick would normally have fallen on New Years Day – so we have pushed that one back a week until 8th January.
Well done everyone and thanks for all your hard work and support during the year. We wish all our volunteers a Merry Christmas and we hope to see you all again in the New Year.