Dear all,
As many of you know, I am taking over my line manager’s post
as of March 1st as maternity cover. As such, this may be my last
monthly update for a while, but hopefully the next officer will be able to
carry this on when he or she starts. It is a very useful way to show the many
groups, schools and Litter champions that although you all will not see me very
often, that I am out there and trying to work really hard to make things a
little bit better. Please continue to email me with enquiries, so I can try and
deal with them and help train up my replacement as quickly as possible.
February has been quite a nice month, I helped St. Philip Evans
Primary School with their 3rd annual coppice event early in the
month in Chapelwood Woods and this was again really successful. We looked at
how well last winter’s and the winter’s before hazel stools had regenerated
after they had cut them to the ground. We also looked at the dead stool which
some local people had set fire to with a wheeliebin; the children were quite rightly
so upset at this.
Pupils from St Philip Evans cutting the stem into sections
The proof of how well these kind of projects do work isn’t
just measured by the decrease in litter, but by bringing along a next
generation of volunteers and I was really pleased to see while the adjacent
woodland of Roundwood was getting roundly hammered in the SW Echo for being a historical
and current dumping ground, that Chapelwood was getting a litter pick during
half term with 4 local litter champions of which 2 were from St. Philip Evans
Primary School (1 from Llanedeyrn Primary School). Chapelwood was a place where
I had no local volunteers when I started, severe flytipping and antisocial
behaviour. It was a site where external people, mainly from organisations were
brought in “to give something back to the community”. Now, local people are
helping to look after it and momentum is building with more local children want
to join in to help keep the estate and the woodlands tidy. A big well done must
be made to David Keigwin from Chapelwood Residents’ Fed for organising and
looking after the kids when they are out litterpicking (nicely it is the kids
nagging him to come out).
Well done to the litter champions of Chapelwood during half term
We finally finished the last wild weekend event with Cardiff Trail Scrubs and Ely Community Mums with our bird and bat boxes going up adjacent to the Ely trail where the guys pulled up Himalayan balsam last summer. It was done with oermission from the landowners, RWEnPower with a member of staff coming along on the final day too. Hopefully, this is the start of something really promising. Thanks to ACE and JustaddSpice for helping to organise and Ely North Youth Centre for hosting the box making and painting sessions.
Boys will be boys
On the note of working with kids, I have done loads of
events with Llanedeyrn Playcentre over the years and the problems in their
woodlands have dropped off significantly too. Here, a path next to the centre was
blocked from a fallen tree and with the children from the centre, we made it
safe and constructed a rustic bench from some of the wood. The Playcentre is a
crucial local hub for young people and brings the kids from all different schools
together to have fun and do positive things. The staff are pivotal to this and
I wish there was more opportunity to do this kind of work. Once you get the
kids hooked they work really hard and really care about these green spaces on
their doorstep.
Training the next generation of volunteers
The bench the children made, it is wired and staked in place, held off the ground to delay rotting.
Our work up on the Hollybush estate is working really well with
Coryton Primary School and Hollybush Resident’s Association seeing a decrease
in the amount of litter on the Estate on our latest litterpick. The only
hotspot now is the open air car body workshops that seem to take place and
instead of putting car bits and oil etc in the bin (oil to the right place at
the tip), they are throwing it on and down the nearby bank. Hopefully a bit
more awareness raising work by the school and this unnecessary behaviour should
be changed too.
Hollybush Residents' Association and Coryton Primary with their haul
Joining up schools and local people is becoming a bit of a
theme, but it is a very useful one that works and next is an early developing
story. There is an amazing chap who lives in Butetown who has gone through an
awful lot in his young life which has partially been reported in the newspapers
already. Anthony has been in remission from a form of brain cancer for almost a
year now. He raises money for several charities including a children’s charity
through fun runs (you may remember a picture of someone in the Echo dressed as
Sonic the Hedgehog). Anthony has been coming out with me on a Friday with CFMEP
and Cardiff Rivers Group for about 6 months. He is so proud of his area and so
sad to see so much litter, that he signed up as a Litter Champion just before Christmas.
Since January 1st he has collected 110 bags of litter from just
around Butetown. If you pass by there, you may see him with his wheelbarrow
piles high. Separately these are inspirational, but together I’m lost for
words. Anyway, with help from Saeed Ibrahim from Fairwater’s Waterhall Youth Centre,
who lives in Butetown, we met up with Mr. Morris, headteacher from Mount
Stewart Primary School, who is really keen to get out there at least once a
month with the after school EcoClub to help make the area a nicer place to live
and to support Anthony. We’ll help them for the first 2 events and equip them
with all the information and skills that they’d need and they can carry on
together, just like a community group. Oh, and Anthony has just collected his
40th dumped umbrella too.
Anthony dragging the Emperor's new mattress along
Our Friday mornings’ CFMEP group has had great fun this
month including helping out the Wild Fishing Wales project in Troedyrhiw by
building steps down to the river. We have also been busy in Grangemoor Park with
permission from Parks Services clearing, coppicing and dead hedging a little
patch adjacent to the Ely Trail. On the last event, the previously described Litter
Champion Anthony, helped another volunteer Sue, to cutback some dogwood trees
and the brash was bundled together into sausages called fascines.
CFMEP with one of our sets of steps in Troedyrhiw
Sue and Anthony with one of the bundles from Grangemoor Park
CFMEP's dead hedge, so far
These fascines were then taken to an after school eco-event
on a Saturday morning to help stabilise a bank that was being washed away near
Glyncoed Primary school. 7 kids, 2 dads, 1 teacher, 1 local litter champion and
another volunteer came along to stabilise the bank by staking the bundles in front
of the bank. To do this, Richard Weaver, showed all the kids how to use a
billhook to sharpen a willow rod into a stake; they all then had a go.
Meanwhile the grown ups all helped to put in some posts to mark a safe edge of
the adjacent path. We were quite surprised when barring holes for the wooden stakes
that some of the path already had water about 2 ft underneath it. When the fascine
defences were in position the kids added the rails using drills and hammer and
nails. One of the children came up with the same idea that I was taught at
college; the rails can be made perfectly parallel, by spacing them apart using
the length of the hammer. Problem solving, communication & working together;
Glyncoed Primary School kids key skills complete.
Glyncoed Primary School's after school EcoClub on a Saturday with Richard in the water getting one of the Grangemoor Park bundles in place.
Fencing and fascines in place
