Cardiff Council announced last week that the Love Where You Live Campaign is back – with more blitz operations, organised litter picks and new ‘community allotments’ being set up in the city. Read on to find out more about the scheme and future plans.
This week the blitz operation is taking place in Plasnewydd between June 19th until 23rd where 15 streets will be deep cleansed. Next week the operation will move closer to home to Adamsdown with Splott planned for early July.
Councillor Michael Michael, Cardiff Council’s Cabinet Member for Clean Streets, Recycling and the Environment said:
“I’m very keen to expand the Love Where You Live Campaign. We can make a real difference to the city’s streets if we work together to improve the environment. Part of my job is to make sure our streets get cleaner and we will be devising plans to improve Cardiff’s street scene, but, there’s no doubt, that the volunteers and local community groups who love where they live and come out to help keep our city clean are the real heroes of this campaign.
Keep Splott Tidy volunteer hard at work
“We already have nine community groups set up who work closely the Council and Keep Wales Tidy to carry out litter picks, with the latest taking place in Rhiwbina at the weekend. I would like to thank the volunteers that gave up their time to litter pick in the summer sun at Caedelyn Park on Friday. Their efforts are greatly appreciated. I want them to know we value their commitment and the pride they take in their neighbourhoods. I also want those people who litter our streets to know that this Council will be coming down hard on them. We are all sick and tired of seeing rubbish littering our streets and flytipping dumped in our lanes. Enough is enough.”
The Love Where You Live campaign is not only about working with the community to keep the city’s streets clean and tidy but it’s also about improving the street scene. In the latest development, community allotments have been installed on streets in Riverside, Adamsdown, Grangetown and Splott. A variety of plants are being grown by the public including fruits, herbs, salads and vegetables. The plants in these new facilities will be grown and harvested by the community to use.
Lynne Thomas, Chairperson for Keep Splott Tidy, is one of the team overseeing the community planters in Splott. She said:
Lynne Thomas, Keep Splott Tidy
“We are delighted to have received three community planters and lots of lovely herbs, fruit and veg to fill them. Community spirit is really strong in Splott and the response to the planters has been nothing short of amazing. People have volunteered to water and tend to the plants and keep an eye on the planters themselves. It’s so important in an inner-city suburb to offer people growing opportunities like this. Not only does it provide fresh produce for people to harvest and use, it helps bring the community together.”
To find out more about the community planters, click here.
Councillor Michael added:
“I’m determined to build on the success of the campaign, to get even more people involved, to create more community groups and litter champions and to provide the help and support to make this happen. This campaign isn’t just about additional cleansing, we want to improve community spirit and pride in the places that we all live and this is why we have introduced the new community allotments. Feedback so far suggests that they have been well received by the public and I hope they are respected by all residents in these areas.”
All of the information on the campaign is available via www.keepcardifftidy.com/ and if anyone would like to become a volunteer or set up a new community group please visit the link.
For information on the Splott Love Where You Live deep clean, click here.
In September last year, the Love Where You Live Campaign began additional blitz operations in wards across the city cleaning streets, highways, parks and other council land. All of this work is on top of normal operations. When the campaign started there was focus on the wards in the south of the city, with the campaign moving to the northern wards after Christmas.