Well not real elephants but their equivalent in litter!
Chris Blomeley from Civic Pride spoke passionately to the club this week about the work they’ve done improving Rawtenstall Centre over the last ten years. Looking at the ‘before’ and ‘after’ shots of St Mary’s Way, the A682 coming into Rawtenstall, the area around the Peace Tree at the end of Bocholt Way and the transformation at The Fold was inspiring.
Chris spoke about the positive reception the Group has had from many of the larger retailers around the town centre who now work harder to keep the area around their stores tidy and litter free. We were stunned to learn that 2000 bags of litter are picked up in and around Rawtenstall each year by the Civic Pride volunteers. At 5kg of litter per bag that’s 10 000 kgs of litter a year (the weight of two Indian Elephants!). That’s an awful lot of litter not being put in bins by the public!
It’s good to know that the work of Civic Pride is now being replicated in Bacup and that the Haslingden Civic Pride group has just had it’s first birthday. President Maureen thanked Chris for giving up his time to talk to us and asked that our thanks be passed onto Civic Pride members for the positive changes they have made to the local environment.