Dear Sir,
First a warm welcome to all residents living in Meadow Rise, the Oaklands and Heighington Meadows.
Monthly Litter Pick to start on April 10th
Well done to Cllr. Crosby for setting up litter pick groups in Newton Aycliffe. Newton Aycliffe is generally a clean town and residents should be proud of it, but there are areas that Cllr. Crosby has identified which do need cleaning up to ‘Stop the Drop’ – a phrase that described the initiative created by Bill Bryson and adopted by LitterFreeDurham 15 years ago and not the Campaign for Rural England – a small but important point.
It is good to see Councillors picking up the litter gauntlet and leading from the front as opposed to talking about it and blaming the Local Authority. More Councillors should support Cllrs Crosby and Gray.
LitterFreeDurham has been campaigning and raising awareness about the consequences of dropping litter for a long time and this included Kit Bartram, who is sadly no longer joining me to visit AAP’s, Aycliffe Youth Council, Parish Councils, Community Groups, LA Scrutiny Committees, Agricultural Shows, talking to over 16,500 pupils of all ages and organising the ‘Big Spring Clean’ which, with the support for Durham County Council and Darlington Borough Council, motivated 4500 volunteers to clean up their own communities, and yet, despite the tremendous efforts of thousands of people the litter problem persists, so we all must continue to encourage people to stop littering and until they do so we must go that extra mile by supporting our LA’s by cleaning up our own communities.
In Heighington litter picking started 15 years ago and thanks to the Chair, Peter Smyth, and lots of volunteers, we still continue to meet to keep our roads clean. Recently, after years of dedication, Peter has retired and Judith King has stepped up to take over the chair. However, because of Covid-19, we have not been able to meet as a group over the last year, but our road verges have kept relatively clean because of the wonderful efforts of individuals who have picked up litter when out walking.
Now, thanks to our wonderful NHS and local doctors practices, the Covid-19 vaccine roll out has been extremely successful so we are planning to hold the first Heighington Litter Pick on 10th April, meeting outside of the village hall at 10am – why not join us? All will be welcomed and it would be particularly good to see any residents from the new housing estates. Litter picking equipment is provided and those with litter picking equipment please bring it with you.
Judith and I look forward to welcoming everyone to the first Parish Litter Pick since last March – please join us!
Cllr. Gerald Lee.
Heighington & Coniscliffe Ward and Chair of LitterFreeDurham
