News ‘Get Involved’ in #CleanUpMaidstone Project
MBC is on a mission to #CleanUpMaidstone and as part of the campaign has launched a community project inviting local people to get involved.
Maidstone Borough Council (MBC) has introduced the ‘Get Involved in #CleanUpMaidstone Project’ - a campaign designed to provide community and volunteer groups, local businesses, residents, retailers, parishes or existing charities with the equipment, resources and support to help improve an area of land they would like to see cleaned up and restored for the community.
The ‘Get Involved Project’ will see MBC working initially with eight community projects to create volunteer groups that it will help carry out the clearance work.
The first project - proposed by Maidstone's Deputy Mayor, Cllr Derek Mortimer was Reed's Cut-through (which runs from Tovil Green to Tovil Hill by the side of the Lidl store), in order to restore it to the community.
Demonstrating that #CleanUpMaidstone is everyone’s responsibility, Cllr Mortimer launched ‘Get Involved’ in Tovil last week, asking local people to help him clear the long neglected and unkempt area. He said:
It is essential that we all get involved and take pride in where we live and work. We should all do our bit to help clean up Maidstone.The Reed’s cut-through is used by hundreds of people every day as they make their way to the shops, school and homes and we can all see that it has been neglected for a long time. I am delighted that the MBC Street Cleansing team has taken the bull by the horns and offered to help in clearing this area and I’ll be leading a community group to help tidy it up. I definitely will be getting my hands dirty cleaning-up this area I just need some willing volunteers to join me!
With your help we could restore the area, clear the debris, cutback the overgrown hedges, remove the rubbish and make it clean, tidy and safe again. Wouldn’t it be great to be able to walk through here and enjoy the surroundings again?
MBC has seen changes to the street landscape and neighbourhoods across the borough, particularly following the lifting of the first Covid-19 lockdown when there was an increase of 250% in littering. As a result the Council has introduced #CleanUpMaidstone and ‘Get Involved’ which MBC teams will support by:
- Working with newly formed groups to plan and undertake the work
- Support purchasing of equipment, materials, tools and street furniture
- Provide required training and Health and Safety guidance
- Provide an ongoing maintenance programme with the aim to hand over the long-term upkeep of the area back to the local community
Any volunteer group that would like to apply to the Council to have their community area cleared as part of the Get Involved campaign should email: StreetCleansing@Maidstone.gov.uk .
#CleanUpMaidstone reminds residents and businesses across the borough that waste is everyone’s problem and that we all have a role to play in solving it. Using parodies of popular TV programmes, the new MBC campaign shows littering is wrong, that it is an offence to litter and if caught people will be fined. It also illustrates how everyday irresponsible waste disposal can impact the environment and how we live.