Some 55 bags of rubbish, an IKEA trolley, 12 dog poos, an old car tyre and a sun lounger mattress were amongst the rubbish cleaned up by volunteers in Ramsgate over a two day period last week
The Great Ramsgate Spring Clean took place on Friday and Saturday (March 22-23) and was spread across three litter picks.
The Spring Clean runs from March 22 until April 23 and is co-ordinated by Ramsgate Litter Forum, a partnership of 15 voluntary groups working with Thanet District Council and Ramsgate Town Council. The event is part of Keep Britain Tidy’s annual Great British Spring Clean.
The first area chosen for the clean-up treatment was the ‘Ramsgate Gateway’: the entrance to Ramsgate from London and Sandwich, along Canterbury Road East and including the Lord of the Manor roundabout.
Tricia Hartley, Chair of the Litter Forum, said: “We chose the Ramsgate Gateway to kick off our month of clean-ups because it’s the first many visitors see of Ramsgate and it was in a terrible state!”
More than 20 volunteers, including five students from the Royal Harbour Academy and their teachers, helped with Friday morning’s clean-up, and a massive 45 bags of rubbish were taken to the tip, making a huge difference to the entrance to the town.
Saturday’s events were smaller and more local. The Western Undercliff Regeneration Group had planned a beach clean, but were pleased to find there wasn’t much rubbish, so their 15 volunteers concentrated on picking up small pieces of plastic that often get missed.
The same wasn’t true for the seven East Cliff Community Group volunteers who tackled Boundary Park and who, in just one hour, managed to gather 10 bags of rubbish, an IKEA trolley, 12 dog poos, an old car tyre and a sun lounger mattress.
Tricia said: “We are immensely grateful to all the amazing volunteers who have gone out of their way to help us launch the Great Ramsgate Spring Clean. We also want to thank Ramsgate Town Council, which funded new litter-picking equipment for us and lent us some muscle from their maintenance team for Friday’s clean-up.
“We have lots more clean-up events planned during the month, culminating in a big chine-to-chine seafront clean on Sunday, April 14, co-ordinated by the Ramsgate Society.”
Anyone who’s interested in helping out can find more information on the Great Ramsgate Spring Clean Facebook page or contact [email protected].”
