Alongside Veolia we are supporting Keep Britain Tidy’s Great British Spring Clean, with the community urged to get involved and help keep our City a place we are all proud of.
The focus of the Great British Spring Clean 2022 is the #BigBagChallenge – where people are urged to pledge to pick up as much litter as possible throughout the campaign, which runs nationally from Friday 25 March until Sunday 10 April.
Equipment including litter pickers, branded sacks, gloves and high viz jackets will be offered to anyone looking to carry out litter picks in their communities. We will also collect any bagged litter from the groups at an agreed location. Anyone collecting as an individual can present their collected bags with their weekly waste collections.
Groups carrying out litter picks must ensure they arrange a collection point with Veolia at least 48 hours before their clean up event.
Cllr Martin Terry, cabinet member for public protection, said: “We are always excited when the Great British Spring Clean comes around because of how many amazing groups and individuals we have here in Southend that give up their time to help keep the City clean and tidy. This is highlighted by the council’s Street Champions initiative, which so far has over 700 people registered, all of whom commit to carry out litter picks throughout the year.
“The Great British Spring Clean is a fantastic opportunity for people that may have never got involved in any litter picks before to do something positive for our City. It really is rewarding to get involved in this sort of community-based event, and I would urge anyone interested to contact us to see how we can support your own clean up events across the City.”
The Great British Spring Clean follows on from the council’s own clean-up campaign, the Big Autumn Tidy, which was a 14-week cleaning campaign launched in November 2021, and saw nearly 125 tonnes of rubbish cleared and nearly 1,000 bulky waste items removed from our streets. The aim of the project was to highlight the need for residents and businesses to play their part in keeping the country’s newest City clean and tidy.
On the Big Autumn Tidy, Cllr Terry added: “There are two ways of looking at the figures from the Big Autumn Tidy. Firstly, it is good to see so much rubbish cleared and so many streets deep cleaned, making a huge difference to the look and feel of local communities, and I would like to thank Veolia crews and council staff for their hard work throughout the project. However, on the flip side we have been given a stark reminder that a small but significant minority are not doing their bit and showing a lack of care for how our City appears to residents, visitors and potential investors.
“As we embark on this incredible opportunity that has been bestowed upon us as the
country’s newest City, now is the opportunity for us to all come together and make the
necessary changes so that we can drive forward and have a City we can all be proud of.”
Stuart Atkinson, Senior Contract Manager for Veolia said: “We were delighted to play our part in the first Big Autumn Tidy and our crews will again support initiatives right across Southend-on-Sea as part of the Great British Spring Clean. It's great to see communities coming together to transform their environment."
Anyone wishing to sign up to the Great British Spring Clean please visit the Keep Britain Tidy website.
Anyone wishing to become a Street Champion please see our Street Champions page.
To contact Veolia to organise a group litter pick or to request clean up equipment, please contact uk.southend-recycling@veolia.com
Additionally, the public can collect clean up kits from the Civic Centre from Tuesday 29 March.