The Great Croydon Clean Up - a great success
Anyone who regularly reads this blog will know that one of the things I am most passionate about - both as a local MP and as a local resident - is cleaning up Croydon.
That’s why last Friday through to Sunday I organised the Great Croydon Clean Up, a long weekend over which I encouraged as many people as possible to get out and help clean the borough up.
In total 16 groups participated from across Croydon including Residents’ Associations, housing associations, schools, scouts groups and businesses.
The Council gave us a tremendous amount of help by supplying bags for the waste and collecting them once we’d done. We collectively picked up 137 bags of refuse over the three days as well as 41 bags of recycling.
I’ve had a number of residents get in touch after the Clean Up asking how they can get involved with volunteering in Croydon. People have no problem giving up a few hours every now and then – especially when it does make a difference. The Great Croydon Clean Up was not just about tidying here and there in the short term however, but about having a long term impact on the perception of our neighbourhoods and the attitudes of the people who live there. I’m hoping to organise another weekend in the autumn.
Events like the Clean Up show that large numbers of us care about Croydon. One of the best things about my job is the number of people I get to meet who are passionate about our town. Many already give a lot of their time to one or more of the many voluntary organisations we have in the borough, but I am passionately believe that on issues like cleaning the place up we can have more impact if we work together.
Anyway thanks to everyone who helped out. You can see some pictures from the weekend here.
Gavin
Thanks to The Croydon Guardian for the picture of me with Ahmadiyya Muslim Association cleaning up Croydon University Hospital
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