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Issue Date: 20th June 2006
TONS OF RUBBISH REMOVED IN NORTH BENWELL
Clean Sweep Week 2006 was organised by North Benwell Neighbourhood Management Initiative and funded by Bridging NewcastleGateshead (BNG) in order to involve residents in cleaning up and improving their local environment.
During the week, which was held at the start of June, a number of different activities and events took place, including:
• Community skips being located throughout the area, which residents were encouraged to fill.
• Hanging basket events to demonstrate how to create beautiful flower displays.
• Community spring clean events for volunteers to collect litter and rubbish from their local environment.
• Events to gather views from young people on how they would like to resurface the community play area.
• The official opening of the Ladykirk Road community garden.
• Recycling talks
Hundreds of residents took part and more than six tons of rubbish were collected throughout the week. Dozens of young people also got involved in coming up with suggestions for resurfacing the new play area and many of them provided designs for consideration. The hanging basket events were also a great success with all of the baskets eventually selling out.
Local resident, Vera Carter helped out at the hanging basket event at Ladykirk Community Garden. She said: "There has been a fantastic response from local residents to Clean Sweep Week. The idea behind the hanging basket event was to get residents to brighten up the local streets by displaying the baskets outside their homes. In the end we had to get more baskets from High Cross to keep up with demand. I had a fabulous day - it's lovely to see everyone coming together for the benefit of the entire neighbourhood."
Clean Sweep organiser, Martin Conway from North Benwell Neighbourhood Management Initiative, said: "Clean Sweep Week has been a great success. It is very important to involve the local community in improving their own environment and I'm delighted at how many local residents took part during the week. They did a magnificent job and I would personally like to thank the residents and all our partners including Two Castles Housing Association, Home Group and Newcastle City Council, for all for their help and support.
North Benwell Neighbourhood Management Initiative covers over 2,000 properties and is funded by Bridging NewcastleGateshead (BNG). It is delivered by Home Group Ltd, Newcastle City Council and Northumbria Police as part of Bridging NewcastleGateshead.