One of the nicest experiences of the month was receiving a letter via C2C from a 10 year old offering to give up her weekend time to help clear an area of land near her house which is often covered in rubbish. This rubbish comes partly from Taff Trail users and mainly from drivers along the A470 dumping stuff out of their windows. Anyway, young Ellie and her Dad are now litter champions and have made their first strides towards keeping this lovely patch tidy. The story will be in the next Capital Times for pics see here: http://flic.kr/s/aHsjzSG8xe.
Ellen, our youngest litter champion & friend
This time of the
year is a big push, or rather pull for Himalayan balsam and loads of groups have
been out pulling it. I’ve been working with loads of schools bringing them out
and using the advantages of numbers to make a difference. Earlier this week I
organised a Himalayan balsam pullathon in Pentwyn behind the Leisure Centre with
local Schools from Pentwyn and Llanedeyrn taking part. For pics see here:
http://flic.kr/s/aHsjAfXaU7.
Schoolchildren from St. David's and St. Philip Evans Primary Schools
For some time, where
it has been difficult to try and form new groups but have some volunteers we
have brought in Primary schools to help out. Kids make a real big difference and
often their efforts have a much stronger effect locally than an adult group.
Hollybush Estate Residents’ Association have also realised this and engaged the
local Primary School to proactively address littering in this estate in
Whitchurch. We had our first event on the 28th of June and this
could be the start of something great and can really make a big difference to
small groups coping with large problems.
I can’t show the photos yet as we are waiting
for permissions to publish. Nigel Pugh, a litter champion in Canton also uses
the same techniques and we also had our first survey and litter event with
Radnor Road Primary School http://flic.kr/s/aHsjA3H1X7.
Crucially, these events are in public shared spaces not inaccessible areas
behind a fence or within the school. These are steps to building the volunteers
of the future that we crave so much.
Radnor Road Primary Litterpick
My CFMEP group has
spent the whole month pulling up Himalayan balsam and mainly in Llanrumney where
there is miles and acres of it. It is in the woodlands on the banks of the
river, along the streams and is encroaching into the meadows that back onto the
Park and Ride Car Park (we will not mention the miles of knotweed that is also
here along the River). Anyway, we helped out local litter champion Dave who is
tackling this pretty much by himself. Pics here: http://flic.kr/s/aHsjzWfPmS,
http://flic.kr/s/aHsjA3VQXG
& http://flic.kr/s/aHsjA8T5d5.
CFMEP in Llanrumney
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