Bolton Green Umbrella

Bolton Great Get Together, Queen's Park

Bolton Green Umbrella | Monday 16 July 2018 | 0 Comments

All you need is love...and litter pickers!

On Saturday 30th June communities in Bolton came together, in the glorious sunshine, to litter pick along the river near to Queen's Park. This area, off Spa Road, is a highlighted problem area for the Environment Agency where fly-tipping and litter are known to cause an increase in local flood risk for the surrounding homes and homes further along the river.

The huge community power of Bolton Green Umbrella, North Bolton, Bolton West and Johnson Fold litter pickers joined forces with Faiths4Change, Bolton Council and Bolton Council of Mosques to tackle the problem in the area. The Leader of Bolton Council Councillor Linda Thomas and Councillor Akhtar Zaman joined the team on the day in clearing well over 100 bags of litter plus 9 tonnes of fly-tipped waste removed from the river and riverbanks by the Environment Agency

A community event took place after the litter pick, in the Pavilion of Queens Park, with food and activities for the children provided by Faiths4Change and Bolton Council of Mosques.

Bolton Council provided great support with equipment, and their operatives drove around the area picking up bags as they were filled by the volunteers.

Heather Berry, Litter Pickers of Bolton West, said of the day:

"This area, in common with many others, seems to have lost its sense of community and this is reflected in the fact that would could be a beautiful riverside is blighted by fly tipping and casual dumping of domestic waste. It has been great to see the professional services working with volunteer groups and members of the public to clean up the streets and river banks but this is just the start of a longer project. The Litter Pickers of Bolton West, North Bolton and Johnson Fold hope that we have inspired the local residents to get involved in future clean up operations and that this will be a catalyst to bring the community closer together."

Liz Atherton, Faiths4Change, said:

"It's fantastic to see interfaith and intergenerational communities from across Bolton coming out to help deal with this ongoing problem. We need to deal with the source of the issue and stop the fly-tipping from happening in the first place. The few people who do it, especially those from other areas who target this area as a fly-tipping spot, have a huge impact on the rest of the community. We need to educate ourselves around waste and be talking to our children about reducing, reusing and recycling."

If you would like to get involved in any way go to www.boltongreenumbrella.org.uk to find out about events across Bolton.