Villages gear up for annual Spring Clean

Apr 9 2010 by Lynn Duke, Strathearn Herald

Villages gear up for annual Spring Clean

APRIL is generally considered a good month for spring cleaning.

And, through the National Spring Clean campaign, Keep Scotland Beautiful is encouraging as many people as possible to pick up litter at some point during the month.

In 2009 Perth and Kinross won the Outstanding Achievement Award for the highest number of litter picks organised out of all the areas in Scotland, with 112 clean-ups and 3540 people taking part in the scheme. This year they aim to be even better.

Two Strath communities have already signed up to lend a hand.

Muthill is holding a litter picking session this weekend, in conjunction with Muthill in Bloom.

Villagers are invited to meet at the school car park at 10am on Saturday, where they will be kitted out with gloves, grabbers, bags and high-visibility jackets.

And in Comrie a litter pick has been organised along the River Earn’s banks and surrounding paths for Friday, April 23.

Comrie Development Trust, Comrie in Colour, Comrie Primary School and Comrie Community Council will all be taking part and members of the community are also encouraged to go along.

The meeting point for the litter pick is the Field of Refuge car park at 1.30pm, where Perth and Kinross Council staff will be present to lend equipment to participants.

Other communities are being invited to get on board too.

If you would like to help clean up your neighbourhood there is still time to sign up.

Perth and Kinross Council’s environment convener Alan Grant said: “We want to encourage as many volunteers as possible to organise and take part in their own spring clean litter pick around where they live.

“We hope that by taking part communities will show that they have pride in Perth and Kinross and by working together we can take responsibility for our surroundings and show that dropping litter is unacceptable and won’t be tolerated.”

All people have to do is find a location near them that they feel needs a spruce-up, choose a date in April and register online at www.keepscotlandtidy.org. Support and equipment is available from the council by calling 01738 476476, or emailing recycle@pkc.gov.uk.

This year all registered litter picks will also be issued with an entry form for Perth and Kinross Council’s Community Prizes for the highest number of volunteers in a single litter pick, the most amount of litter collected and the most unusual item collected.