Joyce thanks local clean-up volunteers on Tidy Towns' first year success

Local Labour Assembly Member JOYCE WATSON thanked local clean-up volunteers as Tidy Towns celebrated its first year in Aberystwyth.

The Welsh Assembly Government’s £12 million drive to get people to clean up their local environment has attracted close to 20,000 volunteers from across Wales in its first year.
Joyce Watson AM said: “We live in one of the most beautiful parts of the world and I am delighted that so many local groups have joined in and made the most of this funding. It is so important that we all play our part in improving our communities. As someone who gardens I know how much pleasure local residents are getting from transforming neglected plots of land into new allotments and community gardens, improving disabled access or promoting waste amnesties."

The Tidy Towns scheme - which was a key Welsh Labour pledge at the 2007 Assembly election - provides funding to Keep Wales Tidy and all 22 Welsh local authorities to work in partnership for three years to tackle local environmental issues.

In the past year, almost 20,000 volunteers have worked with 579 community groups on more than 4,500 improvement projects across the country.

These vary from litter picking, graffiti and fly tipping removal to creating new wildlife habitat areas, community gardens or arts projects to bring back areas of neglect into community use.
Joyce added: “We all have a duty to help contribute towards the creation of a cleaner, safer and tidier Wales, and I hope that more and more communities in Mid and West Wales will seize this new funding opportunity and build on this success.”

Aman Valley Conservation Association's 43 volunteer members adopted a badly littered stretch of the Aman River and removed 282 bags of litter and 2.85 tonnes of general waste from its banks and overhanging trees. They won the 2008 Tidy Wales River Improvement Award for their clean-up work, and are now removing invasive Giant Knotweed.

Hafan Hedd won the 2008 Tidy Wales Beach Improvement Award. The group of staff and clients of Ceredigion Community Mental Health Team meet once a week to clean up the coastline between Cardigan and Aberystwyth. They have collected over 1,386 bags of litter, as well as maintaining footpaths and steps going down to Mwnt beach.

At the Mill Pond in Pembroke volunteers cleared an overgrown footpath to install new disabled access picnic benches, and extended the path so a picnic bench could be sited at the end of it. Other sections were widened to improve access for pushchairs and wheelchair users, and, after graffiti removal training, volunteers removed graffiti from a wall near the Mill Pond.

What are your views? To contact Joyce Watson go to http://www.joycewatson.co.uk/