Beanhill Community Clean Up Day took place on Wednesday 13th of May.
The event was a real success, bringing together a number of local residents and groups in a joint effort aimed at tidying up the estate and raising awareness of the increasing environmental issues such as fly-tipping and overhanging vegetation.
The initiative received support from Moorland School and Beanhill’s branch of MacIntyre, a national charity supporting children, young people and adults who have a learning disability or autism to live their life their way. A group of children from Moorland School litter-picked the area around the school and the MacIntyre groups cleaned the street signs all around the estate.
“We really enjoyed being part of the event and had lots of lovely comments from local people. The children were very enthusiastic and felt that they were doing something worthwhile and useful for the community.” Juliet Jones, Head Teacher at Moorland School.
Serco, the cleaning contractor in Beanhill, joined the volunteers to help them carry out their litter-picking tasks and provided the necessary tools, including the litter-pickers, rubber gloves and bin bags. It was a good opportunity for residents and the Serco team to interact and work together, sharing perspectives on keeping the estate a clean and safe place to be. Since the day, the team has visited the weekly coffee morning at Moorlands Centre to engage with the local residents further.
Robert Watson, Serco Street Cleansing Supervisor said “The level of support and community spirit shown by Beanhill residents was inspiring, thank you to Anna, her team and all of volunteers for letting us be part of such a successful day.”
The Community & Events Group at Moorlands Centre and Beanhill Action Group also helped to make the event a success by preparing a lovely lunch for the volunteers, which was a great opportunity to relax after litter-picking and chat to fellow residents and other groups involved on the day.
One of the volunteers who helped to run the event smoothly won the shopping-card gift voucher, which had been donated by the local Asda store in Bletchley.
Asda’s Community Life Champion came along to help with litter-picking too.
A number of local residents who were helping out with this initiative called for a new volunteer-led group to be formed in Beanhill, which would run on-going projects and tackle any key environmental problems on the estate. One resident told us:
“It would be good to see an on going group formed for caring for the green area of Beanhill, including taking care of the parks and doing regular walk arounds.”
Some of the ideas for the group and the projects it could run included an all week amnesty of the clearing of rubbish accumulating in peoples’ car ports (and forgo the charges) and a skip week where there would be a large skip at the end of each main drag for people to put their items in.
Laura Nash, Beanhill residents and the Event’s Coordinator said:
“The Clean Up Day was a great success and it was great to see a few new faces too, wanting to get involved in where they live. I would like to say thank you to the residents that took part on the streets, to those in the kitchen and behind the scenes, and also to MacIntyre for all your hard work.”
To see more photos from the day, click here.