Getting rid of volunteer litterpicked rubbish and almost finished the hedge in Old St. Mellons

We do a phenominal number of litterpicks with volunteer groups across Cardiff. We are often asked what happens after the hard work is done. For the litter pick we did at Hawthorn Junior School a month ago, the litter was taken away today by Peter and his colleague from Street Cleansing.



As it was behind locked gates, it was removed less urgently. However, it was very pleasing to see that there was no extra rubbish dumped on this site since our clean up.

Earlier in the day, I went down to the hedge that volunteers from the St. Mellons over 50's club had been working on with me on and off over the last month. Sue was ill, so it was left to Rose and I to lay the last couple of trees, tuck all the branches in and then coursely weave in the binders or hetherings. The last remaining task will be to level off the binders and cut the stakes to height. The hedge looks pretty good and was made using only materials that was growing on the hedge before we started. Some of the older stools are also in a much better condition now than what they were before we started. All very positive.

To Bin or not to Bin & Adopting Local Areas.

People often say that there are not enough bins around and it is a serious issue of debate. Some will say if you have rubbish take it home with you and the conscientious will. In Ely recently, there was a complaint that some bins were full, they were being used and weren't being emptied on a regular enough basis while the overflowing litter was being blown about. In Fairwater this week I took a photo of a full bin with a field virtually empty of litter by the leisure centre.

Today however, I saw almost the worst example for a vote for the people who say don't bother putting bins up as some people will just ignore them:

The aim of this walk, however, was to look at the suitability for part of the brook around Roath Park to be adopted by the Cardiff & District Soroptimists. The sun was out and hundreds of people were enjoying Roath Park, there was even a group out litterpicking. However, the brook was stinking with litter. Instead of looking at the grey wagtails and wrens on the various stones emerging from the water, I was drawn towards carrier bags, crisp packets and drinks cans. The Parks Department are in agreement that the group can proceed subject to liability insurance (available to groups through Keep Wales Tiday) and correct training. Hopefully they will be able to make significant impacts on the visual quality and habitats of this area. Watch this space for updates.

Is there somewhere in your area that you'd like to help take care of, give me a call on 07717 412 270 or chris.partridge@keepwalestidy.org.

Tidy Up around Fairwater Leisure Centre Saturday 26th March 10-1pm

This Saturday, in partnership with Cardiff Parks Department, Cardiff Rivers Group, Fairwater Communities First and Goodies in Hoodies, we are planning to clean out the stream alongside the Leisure Centre as well as the tramway on the other side. The latter will involve some habitat work on some of the trees which were damaged during the winter.

On a site visit there it was very encouraging to see the following sight:

...so if this was an individual or a collective, nice one.

All tools will be provided for the event and we will hopefully have some soup afterwards. The meeting point is the Leisure Centre Car Park:


View Sat 26th March 2011 Fairwater stream and Lane in a larger map

19-20.03.11 Continuing the Hedge in Old St. Mellons

We continued the Hedgelaying in Old St. Mellons over Saturday and Sunday making great progress. This time we had eight volunteers with an age range from 6 - Nanny.

We'd almost left the hardest part of the hedge until last with two massive hazel stools about three foot apart which were almost pollard hedgelayed the last time the hedge was managed. Much handsawing was done to tackle this and sore forearms were widely reported the day afterwards. We were very pleased with the amount of work completed and we think we will finish the hedge in two short sessions time.

There was lots of local interest in what we were doing with lots of kind compliments offers of help on litterpicks and worries about the levels of dog fouling on the site.