Residents join the Council in support of the Great British Spring Clean
Come rain or shine, residents young and old have been out in force sprucing up their communities across the borough.
Havering Council supplied kits for residents to borrow and hold their own community clean-ups in the areas where they live, work or go to school.
This was in support of Keep Britain Tidy’s Great British Spring Clean, which ran from 22 March to 23 April. The kits were funded by environmental specialists, Veolia.
Council officers from the street cleansing team helped to collect rubbish from the groups involved.
Community clean-up events will also form a large part of the Council’s Cleaner Havering Campaign, which was launched recently.
The Council will be supporting litter picks and events as part of the campaign, to help keep the borough clean and tidy.
Also under the Cleaner Havering Campaign, the Council has invested an extra £400,000 in street cleaning, which will see the frequency of cleaning residential streets increased from every three weeks to every fortnight.
Events during the four-week spring clean included Wennington Residents Association holding a clean-up event in early April, with 40-plus local residents donning gloves and litter picks around Wennington Green, Rainham.
Pupils and their teachers at Concordia Academy in Romford held their own litter pick event, where they were joined by Councillor Osman Dervish, Havering Council’s Cabinet Member for Environment, as they also learnt about the issues caused by dropping litter.
Resident Jan Haward was joined by her five-year-old grandson Ewan, husband Royston and neighbour Chris, to clear litter in the Honiton Road area and the nearby church grounds.
Jan Haward, said: “I felt what we were doing was a good example to my grandson and we enjoyed being outdoors.”
In Hornchurch, resident Melanie Eadon was joined by her two sons, Max, 11 and eight-year-old George, who are part of the 8th Hornchurch Scout group and Dragon Cub pack, respectively.
As a scout, Max is working for his personal challenge award, part of which involves volunteering for an event such as this.
Melanie Eadon said: “I thought it was also good for us as a family to do - give something back to the community we live in.”
Also hosting a clean-up event, was the Havering-atte-Bower Conservation Society [HABCOS], which cleared around 40 sacks of rubbish, including discarded dog mess.