A Keyham woman is spearheading a community initiative to clean up the city’s neighbourhoods.
El Clarke and her partner Ashton Samuels set up the ‘Clean Our Patch’ Facebook page earlier this year to encourage people to join the growing team of community litter pickers.
El said:
“Originally we started out as a couple who were frustrated seeing litter pile up on local streets, so we put our gloves on and started doing something about it. We tackled our own street first and found that once you start litter picking it’s actually quite difficult to stop.
“We quickly became a litter picking community group with an aim of reinstalling a long lost community spirit by bringing people together to create a cleaner and safer environment for everyone – including wildlife.
“Local residents often stop to share their appreciation for what we are doing, others provide us with drinks on hot days and some also want to get involved.”
“…we put our gloves on and started doing something about it.”
The group originated in the Keyham area but have now branched out to St Budeaux, Mount Wise, Mutley, Greenbank and Plympton hoping to eventually have a group in each ward of the city, led by volunteer co-ordinators.
El said:
“We are working closely with local councillors and Plymouth City Council to clean our city – and they have been incredibly supportive.”
She said that Cllr Bill Stevens had provided £400 from his community grant to fund equipment for the group with a similar sum to come from Cllrs Margaret Corvid and Chaz Singh.
“This will enable us to continue to expand into other areas of the city as we see more and more people join us in this important community activity.”
To date the group has collected nearly 750 bags of rubbish and a mountain of other discarded material – all of which is collected by the City Council at the end of one of three group’s litter picking forays.
Their efforts have not gone unnoticed, attracting plenty of media attention and leading to a place in the finals of the Plymouth Community Awards.
El said that they will be organising a major event on September 15 which is World Clean Up Day.
To find out more visit the group’s page on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.
