Two groups from Highland rewarded for their litter-picking efforts
Issued by Keep Scotland Beautiful
Carrbridge Community Council and St Duthus Special School in Highland are two of 30 groups from across Scotland to be rewarded with permanent litter kits, for their hard work blitzing local areas of litter, thanks to money awarded by the People’s Postcode Trust to Keep Scotland Beautiful for distribution.
Keep Scotland Beautiful (KSB) empowers people across Scotland to pick up litter to make Scotland a more beautiful place to live and visit and, each year, volunteers apply for clean-up kits. KSB wanted some way of rewarding the efforts of groups out there who have tirelessly tackled litter in their areas over the years – so they applied to the People’s Postcode Trust and received almost £10,000. With this money, Keep Scotland Beautiful has been able to give Carrbridge Community Council and St Duthus Special School, along with 28 other community groups, well-deserved permanent kits which include: handy hoops, litter pickers, gloves, high-vis jackets and bags for collecting litter.
Carrbridge Community Council and St Duthus Special School must carry out four clean-ups this year – one before the 20th April and one must be part of Keep Scotland Beautiful’s National Spring Clean campaign which ends on the 16th May. They also have to provide feedback to Keep Scotland Beautiful about what and how much litter they have collected, and the equipment must be available to be borrowed by any other keen groups in their local area.
Roy Brown, Carrbridge litter pick organiser, said on behalf of Carrbridge Community Council: "Carrbridge is a vibrant, clean, tidy village but we still need to make sure that it stays that way. To make a tidy place even tidier, we are having our second 'Spring Clean' on Sunday 8 May. The permanent kit will come in very handy for this, and for future litter picks – thank you!"
Joep Eggermont from St Duthus Special School said: “In the past we have always joined in with the Keep Scotland Tidy campaign, and all pupils and staff would work together. As a special school we like to spend much time exploring our direct surroundings, and in Tain this means regular walks to local parks and to the links area. We have collected rubbish along our normal routes on the clean–up days, but would consider taking some clean up equipment with us on regular outings.
“Our older pupils like the jackets and the professional looking kit, and will be using it around our school regularly as well. It is all part of our local citizenship programme and fits in very well with the four capacities of CfE.”
Derek Robertson, Chief Executive of Keep Scotland Beautiful, said: “It is absolutely fantastic that the People’s Postcode Trust have invested in Keep Scotland Beautiful this way – it just shows what you can do by working in partnership. I am delighted that we are able to reward groups across Scotland, with these Permanent Litter Kits, and hope it inspires more people to get out there and do their bit to keep their patch of Scotland beautiful.”
People’s Postcode Trust Advisor Clare Oliver said “People’s Postcode Trust were thrilled to award £9,350 to Keep Scotland Beautiful for the purchase of litter-picking kits for their Spring Clean campaign. The project is one which will hugely benefit the surrounding community, and People’s Postcode Trust is delighted to be a part of it. The Trust is entirely funded by People’s Postcode Lottery. 40p from every single ticket is awarded to charities, and the Trust has already received more than £2.1 million, which has funded 428 projects across Great Britain.”
If you would like to help keep your part of Scotland beautiful, why don’t you apply for a clean-up kit by visiting www.keepscotlandtidy.org/cleanupkit.asp, or join Keep Scotland Beautiful’s National Spring Clean campaign and be part of a nation-wide effort to blitz Scotland of its litter by visiting: www.keepscotlandtidy.org/springclean.