Tag Archives: The Honey Bee

News Update : 01-MAR-26

Since the last news update, we have:

a) Continued with our twice monthly litter picks :

7 volunteers met at Bank Square on Wednesday 04-FEB-26.  We collected 10 bags plus 1 bag of recyclables. We were pleased to welcome Helen who has recently started a role at Wilmslow Town Council supporting community groups.

4 volunteers met at The Honey Bee on Saturday 07-FEB-26. We covered Altrincham Road from Waters down the roundabout before the airport tunnels. We collected 8 bags plus 3 bags of recyclables.

b) Continued with our solo picks. Areas covered include Grove Avenue, Water Lane, Hawthorne Street, Albert Road, Eccups Lane and Morley Green Road. Many thanks to everyone who did a solo pick – especially Peter, Chris, Liz and Gareth.  Apologies if I missed anyone !

c)  Held our AGM. We have sufficient funds to continue operating. Some of the other topics are covered below.

d) Continued to support Gareth who is volunteering with us, for 3 months, as part of the Duke of Edinburgh scheme.  He has completed 7 solo picks now and we are very grateful.

e) Started the process of welcoming another Duke of Edinburgh volunteer on board.

f)  Agreed that we will man a stall at the “Wilmslow Community Fair”. This Is a new initiative being organised by Wilmslow Town Council. It is being held in The United Reformed Church Hall from 15:00->17:00 on Sunday 08-MAR-26.  It will allow visitors to see which local groups exist in Wilmslow and what they are involved with. The groups will be able to raise awareness. Hopefully, this will lead to some new volunteers :
Wilmslow Community Fair

g) Liaised with a group called RRT who have offered to assist us at a litter pick (e.g. providing extra volunteers, coffee etc) – we are still considering their offer.

h) Started to plan the reduction of scheduled picks from 2 a month down to 1.  This is unfortunate but we really struggle to get leaders.  The committee will be holding a meeting soon to plan how we implement this and how we can continue to supply bags etc. to solo pickers. We are also considering the introduction of a get together for a coffee after every pick.

i) Started to plan attendance at a conference of local litter picking groups. This will be in Sandbach on 11-APR-26.

j) Contacted Cheshire East to discuss the support they provide for litter picking groups. We questioned whether they could any parking concessions for litter picking events but is not possible. They can potentially assist us by promoting our work on their social media channels.

k) Contacted Cheshire East to see if a visit to their recycling facility would be possible. Unfortunately, it isn’t but this web page / video might be of interest:
What Happans To Waste And Recycling In Cheshire East

l) Invited Ester McVey to a litter pick on 06-JUN-26 – another attempt to raise our profile.

News Update : 30-NOV-25

Since the last news update, we have:

a) Continued with our twice monthly litter picks :

2 volunteers met at The Honey Bee on Wednesday 05-NOV-25. We picked along Altrincham Road and collected 3 bags.

Apologies to anyone who turned up to Lindow Common on Saturday 08-NOV-25 as the leader was unable to attend.  One of the other committee members was there shortly after 10:00 and didn’t see anyone else – so hopefully no-one was inconvenienced.  We know of at least 1 bag and some recyclables being collected.

b) Continued with our solo picks.

c) Renewed our annual insurance policy.

d) Began planning our AGM. This will be held on the evening of 17-FEB-26 in The Quaker Meeting Room. More details will be sent out nearer the time.

News Update : 30-AUG-25

Since the last news update, we have:

a) Continued with our twice monthly litter picks :

4 volunteers met at The Honey Bee on Wednesday 06-AUG-25. We collected 7 bags plus one bag of recyclables.

8 volunteers, including 2 youngsters, met at Bank Square on Saturday 09-AUG-25. We collected 11 bags of litter and one bag of recyclables. We covered the town centre and part of Knutsford Road.

Wilmslow Clean Team Volunteer At A Litter Pick In August 20

 

 

 

 

b) Continued with our solo picks.

c) Responded to a query from “MultiRealm” – a company whose head office is in Wilmslow. They are organising litter picks for their teams across the country on 15-SEP-25 (to coincide with World Cleanup Day). We will be lending them our equipment for their Wilmslow pick.

d) Responded to a complaint from an Alderley Edge resident who was disappointed by the rubbish he saw on Parkway on a visit to Wilmslow. We went along to do a solo pick but it wasn’t as bad as we were expecting – which made sense considering we were out and about on a scheduled pick in the town centre only a few days earlier.

 

News Update : 02-MAR-25

Since the last news update, we have:

a) Continued with our twice monthly litter picks :

9 volunteers met at Bank Square on Wednesday 05-FEB-25. We covered the town centre, collecting 15 bags of litter and 1 bag of recyclables.

Wilmslow Clean Team 15 Bags Altrincham Road Airport Tunnels - 08-FEB-25A good turnout of volunteers met at The Honey Bee on Saturday 08-FEB-25. We were very pleased to welcome JD as a new volunteer. We collected at least 17 bags along Altrincham Road, the roundabout near the tunnels and the lanes near the hotel (near the entrance to Styal). The whole area was left looking so much tidier.

 

b) Continued with our solo picks

c) Held our AGM on 04-FEB-25. Our chairman Chris reviewed the year, our treasurer Stuart gave an overview of our financial position, and we discussed various topics including the possibility of buying/installing some “anti littering” signage (if we can obtain a suitable grant). It was also agreed that last year’s social evening in the King’s Arms was a success and that we will look at organising another one soon.

d) Arranged for ANSA to litter pick part of the A34 dual carriageway whilst one of the sections was coned off.

e) Closed our “X” (Twitter) account.

News Update : 30-NOV-24

Since the last news update, we have:

a) Continued with our twice monthly litter picks :

7 volunteers met at The Honey Bee on Wednesday 06-NOV-24. We covered the roads in the vicinity of the pub with Chris Manley heading off to pick in Sainsbury’s car park. We collected 13 bags of rubbish plus some other larger items of debris.

On Saturday 09-NOV-24 we met at Lindow Common and picked the surrounding area, meeting for a coffee afterwards. A separate pick also covered Knutsford Road, Alderley Road and Beddels Lane. We collected at least 7 bags.

b) Continued with our solo picks.  You are all doing a great job.  We were particularly impressed by Lauren who collected 30 bags around Colshaw in October!

c) Contacted Waitrose about the possibility of contributing to our running costs in the new year.

d) Applied to the Tesco blue token scheme.

e) Offered help to keep the “Wilmslow Winter Wonderland” event clean.

f) Chatted to officers from the Bollin Valley Project which manages Lindow Common. They were removing some fly tipping from the car park. They passed on their thanks to the clean team for all our efforts.

g) Tried to find out more about “Butterfly Bank” – the wooded area from Stockton Road to Alderley Edge golf course – which is a litter hot spot since it became a magnet for BMX bike riders.

h) Saw a “thank you” post from “Wilmslow Town Council” on Facebook:
Thankyou On FaceBook From Wilmslow Town Council

i) Renewed our annual insurance policy

News Update : 01-SEP-24

Since the last news update, we have:

a) Continued with our twice monthly litter picks :

5 volunteers met at The Honey Bee on Wednesday 07-AUG-24.  We covered Altrincham Road collecting 9 bags of litter and 1 bag of recyclables.

Only 2 volunteers were able to attend the Bank Square pick on Saturday 10-AUG-24. We collected 3 bags around the Bollin Link, Grove St,  Alderley Rd, Swan Street and the top half of Church Street.

b) Continued with our solo picks.

c) Moved our website to a new hosting provider.  We started off in 2014 with a hosting company called TSO Host. They were very good for a long time but were bought out by a large American company called GoDaddy. Since then, support has become almost non-existent.  They moved our website onto a new platform earlier this year and broke our email functionality. They took a long time to fix that issue.  Our website broke again a few weeks ago. This time there was no response after 2 or 3 weeks despite various chases on the support ticket.  Having finally run out of patience with TSO/GoDaddy, we bought a hosting package at a new company. The new company has been excellent so far. They migrated the website across for us free of charge.  It all basically just worked – with very little work required by us.  Since then, a further support ticket has been raised with TSO Host to cancel the old service.  Again, this request has gone into a black hole.  We are pushing for a refund but not holding our breath.  Hopefully, some other TSO Host customers will report them to Trading Standards.  There are dozens of frustrated customers/companies who are struggling to operate.  These are their most recent TrustPilot reviews :
https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/tsohost.com?sort=recency

 

News Update : 01-JUN-24

Since the last news update, we have:

a) Continued with our twice monthly litter picks (which formed part of our “Spring Clean” 2024 week) :

There was a small turn out on Wednesday 1st May despite the nice weather.  We met at The Parish Hall and collected 4 bags.

Once again there was only a small turn out on Saturday 4th May.  We met at The Honey Bee and collected 6 bags.

b) Held an extra “Spring Clean” pick.  We met in Sainsbury’s car park on Monday 29th April.  We collected at least 15 bags.  We then went to the Coach and Four for some drinks and a chat.

c) Continued with our solo picks.

d) Reported some fly tipping (at the rear of Broadway Meadow car park) to Cheshire East

e) Continued support for a local student, Joe, who is doing a fantastic job as part of the volunteering section of his Duke of Edinburgh award.

f) Stuart attended the annual town meeting and represented the clean team – presenting information about our activities.

g) Received notification about the “Wilmslow In Bloom” judging day – which will be on 02-JUL-24.  We normally try to clean up the town and the judging route in advance.  We will send out a request for help nearer the time.

h) Received some poster designs from Wilmslow High School pupils.  We will be reviewing these and potentially using them in some signage around the town.

i) Received information from Terry Burgess at CETRA (Colshaw Estate Tenants and Residents Association).  They have re-arranged their big clean up weekend in early June.  We have a schedule pick in the Summerfields area on Wednesday 05-JUN-24 but Terry has asked if we could also help out on Sunday 09-JUN-24 – even if it is just for an hour or so.

j) Had confirmation from our web hosting company that the website will be migrated sometime before 05-JUN-24.  There may be some disruption as part of this exercise – and it is possible that we may struggle to send/receive emails whilst any issues are resolved.  Fingers crossed that the website carries on working !

News Update : 03-MAR-24

Since the last news update, we have:

a) Continued with our twice monthly litter picks :

7 volunteers met on Wednesday 7th February at Bank Square.  It was great to see 2 employees of Pets at Home who had worked with us before as part of their firm’s community service. We collected 10 bags in the town centre.

8 volunteers met at the Honey Bee on a dry and sunny morning on Saturday 10th February. We covered Altrincham Road from Waters down to the airport tunnels and the old road from the Airport Hotel to the Styal entrances .  We were delighted to welcome 2 new volunteers who helped us collect a big haul of 18 bags and some recyclables.

b) Continued with our solo picks.

c) Made an initial response to the chairman of Colshaw Estate Tenants and Residents Association (CETRA) about potentially assisting with a big clean up exercise of the valley area on Colshaw Farm estate on Saturday 13th April and Sunday 14th April.

d) Asked ANSA if they could litter pick the verges of the A34 whilst they were cordoned off for a separate exercise.  Unfortunately this was not possible at that time – although it looks like it might happen in April.

e) Started to plan the renewal of our website hosting and domain registration.

News Update : 02-DEC-23

Since the last news update, we have:

a) Continued with our twice monthly litter picks :

6 volunteers met at The Honey Bee on Wednesday 01-NOV-23. We covered Altrincham Road and the area near the airport tunnels. We collected at least 9 bags.  We were pleased to welcome 3 ladies from “Carefound Home Care” to this pick.

8 volunteers met at The Parish Hall on Saturday 04-NOV-23. We covered the Carrs, the surrounding area and the town centre. We collected 9 bags.

Thanks to everyone who participated.

b) Continued with our solo picks.

c) Completed the move of our bank account from Barclays

d) Started to plan a get together for our 10th anniversary. We are currently considering meeting up in The Kings Arms one evening in January – probably a Monday or a Tuesday. More details will be sent out once the plans are confirmed.

e) Started to investigate a possible poster campaign (following up on a recent suggestion by Elaine)

f) Renewed our annual insurance.

News Update : 04-DEC-22

Since the last news update, we have:

a) Continued with our twice monthly litter picks :

4 volunteers met at The Honey Bee on Wednesday 1st November. We covered Altrincham Road and the surrounding area ,collecting 7 bags and a large plastic cover. We also found two weighty blue canisters of ‘Miami Infusions’, which was labelled as nitrous oxide on the reverse!

5 volunteers met, at the Parish Hall, on a drizzly morning, on Saturday 5th November. We covered the surrounding area including The Carrs, Chancel Lane, Church Street, Manchester Road, Cliff Lane, Styal Road and Lacey Green. We collected at least 7 bags.

Thanks to everyone who participated.

b) Continued with our solo picks.

c) Reported the fly tipping of a large sofa, on Park Road, to ANSA.

d) Renewed our annual insurance.

e) Held a committee meeting.

f) Submitted an order for a litter picking trolley:
Litter Picking Trolley Oderd

 

 

 

g) Updated the list of our co-sponsors on the Website

h) Thanked ANSA for responding to our request to replace the burnt out litter bin at the corner of Leaside Way and the (A538) Prestbury Link Road.

i) Collated some photos (thanks Stuart) of some food packaging recycling facilities in Wilmslow:
Food Packaging Recycling Facilities Wilmslow