Keep Britain Tidy held their annual Great British Spring Clean campaign 28 May - 13 June this year and Nene Park Trust pledged to help the campaign reach its ‘Million Mile Mission’ with a number of successful litter picking events.

On 1 June, we held a community litter pick at Ferry Meadows where members of the public came along and borrowed a sanitised litter picker and a bin bag and helped collect litter around the Park. 29 people of all ages took part for a total of 62 hours between them, filling more than 18 bags of rubbish. Our youngest participant was 18 months old and had their own mini litter picker! Each participant received a ‘Nene Park litter picker’ sticker, which proved very popular.

Our 28 volunteer rangers completed 115 hours of litter picking over the two week period. We also had a special group of six intrepid volunteers who set off around Gunwade Lake in kayaks to complete 18 hours between them on a lake litter pick, collecting rubbish from the lake shores.

There were also a number of Nene Park Trust staff litter picking events held across the city. Twenty two members of staff completed 22 hours out and about with litter pickers and bin bags on Oundle Road, Lincoln Road, Central Park and Dogsthorpe.

      

In total the Trust completed 14,070 minutes which translate as 703.5 miles towards the national Million Mile target – a target which has now been exceeded nationally. Thank you to staff, volunteers and members of the public for taking part in these events; keeping our Park and city cleaner and tidier and raising awareness for this important campaign.

Hannah Keeley, Project Officer (Communities) for Nene Park Trust said “Our amazing Volunteer Rangers and Park Management Team collect litter across all areas of Nene Park every day of the year. It was wonderful to support them and the Keep Britain Tidy Campaign with the community litter pick and meet people of all ages giving up their time to help the Park. The community came together to tackle a common issue. Thank you to all involved.”

It is important to note that joining up with the Keep Britain campaign helped to raise awareness of the litter issue at Nene Park but was just a fraction of the litter and waste collection that is carried out daily by our dedicated Park Management and volunteer teams year round. Litter and waste collection costs Nene Park Trust £50,000 a year, with fly tipping adding an additional £3,500 to that. The Trust is proud to send zero waste to landfill but is keen to increase levels of recyclable waste. Unfortunately, due to incorrect waste being placed in the recycling bins, the contents of the recycling bins often has to go to general waste, which is very disappointing. We urge the public to dispose of their litter responsibly in the correct bins around the Park.

The community litter pick was so popular that we are looking at putting on more litter picking events like these in the summer holidays. Keep an eye on our website and social media channels for more information on future events and about how you can get more involved in keeping Nene Park clean, tidy and litter-free.