On the hottest day of the year, a group of seven ladies from Lichfield & District Soroptimists’ planet group and their friends embarked on their very first, socially-distanced litter pick of 2020.
Improving the local environment for the benefit of the whole community forms a key plank of club President Jenny McLelland’s programme for the year. So the club’s Planet sub group has been itching to start the “real work” for a while, and finally in June the Covid-19 restrictions were lifted sufficiently to enable a pilot litter pick to take place.
The group wanted to test how this could be achieved without breaching the safety guidelines and thanks to some excellent planning and risk assessment, felt confident enough to undertake a litter pick with a limited number of club members to enable proper social distancing.
As a Club we are keen to work in partnership with local community groups, not only in Lichfield but also in our “District”. Our Planet sub group has worked hard to identify suitable groups with whom we can partner going forward. This will give us the benefit of “strength in numbers” to carry out the actual work, and also open up other avenues of cooperation and identify new projects on which Club can focus as part of its Programme Action activity. There’s the added benefit of getting our name and ethos better known too, with the possibility of increasing membership as a result.
In collaboration with Sue Merriman at Brereton Million, a hub organisation which is doing fantastic community work in the area, we decided to carry out our first litter pick on Thursday 25th June. Sue kindly loaned us all the PPE and litter picking equipment we needed, and after a full briefing at the meeting point, the group walked around Ravenhill Park in Brereton, Rugeley. Our timing was just excellent as the park was due to re-open on 29th June.
In only an hour and a half the volunteers managed to collect seven large and very full bags of litter between them – consisting mainly of food and drink packaging left behind from picnics, along with alcohol bottles and a very large bag of empty beer bottles which had been deliberately fly-tipped in the park! Add to that the odd laughing gas canister and it was a (not so) “impressive” haul.
The group found it extraordinary that despite plentiful waste bins – all with space in them – situated around the park at all the exits and elsewhere – park users still found it necessary to simply dump their litter where they sat.
On the plus side, apart from the satisfaction of clearing up so much detritus, the group was thanked and congratulated by local residents and members of the public, which was much appreciated. Not only that, but we identified a couple of opportunities for Club to assist vulnerable members of the community during the CV19 lock down, and managed to find a home at the local food bank for part a large donation of dry dog food of which one of our members was aware! Now that’s the benefit of partnership working…small things which can make a big difference.
The Club members thoroughly enjoyed the experience and are now planning more litter picks with Brereton Million and other local organisations over the coming months as the Covid-19 restrictions lift.
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