Clean–up our town and take some pride

It’s time to make Spalding shine and ensure both visitors and residents enjoy the beauty of the area and support retailers and businesses.

South Holland District Council is urging everyone to grab a black bag and take part in this year’s Great British Spring Clean event.

With town centres facing a difficult time from online competition, making everyone’s trip to Spalding welcoming can only help.

Fly-tipping is another issue the council and landowners are battling but they also need help from the public to curtail the illegal activity.

“Fly tippers are lazy, greedy and criminal. We’ve had some success dealing with these criminals using our enforcement team, with a number of high profile prosecutions,” said Coun Roger Gambba-Jones, portfolio holder for place.

The Keep Britain Tidy campaign group is staging the Great British Spring Clean in a few weeks and the council hopes Spalding will benefit from the event.

“We acknowledge that there’s more we need to do in terms of tackling littering, fly-tipping and general waste in our district and we are working hard to remedy that through planned ongoing discussions with residents, community groups and parish councils,” said a council spokesman.

“The vast majority of residents who live and work in South Holland take pride in their district, however there’s more work to be done around the re-education – and ultimately enforcement of – the small minority of those who persistently litter, who blight our countryside with rubbish and those who put out their waste and recycling bags well in advance of collection day.

“South Holland District Council will be supporting Keep Britain Tidy’s The Great Spring Clean campaign starting in March along with other initiatives that encourages residents to be more responsible with waste, as well as asking residents to report issues online such as littering and fly-tipping so we can take the appropriate action.

“If any resident, business or community group want to get involved in The Great Spring Clean, and need assistance with equipment or advice, please contact us,” he added.

The national campaign is running for a month and has details on its website.

Coun Jack McLean is a founder of the Spotless Spalding social group which has members organising regular litter-picks around the town.

They even joined forces with the water taxi on Tuesday and pulled 30 bags of rubbish, and a bike, out of the River Welland.

“I think it’s moving in the right direction and if people focus on their own area it would really help,” he said.

Group members are frequently out collecting litter from areas highlighted via members or from the Facebook platform it utilises.

Member Ian Haynes said that the day on the Welland had been really successful.

“We were out from 9am to 2.30pm and couldn’t have done it without the help of

Anthony and the Water Taxi,” he said.

“The bike was the biggest thing, but there was plenty of rubbish,” he added.

New members of Spotless Spalding are always welcome to join and the group is on Facebook.

The council is also set to discuss the problem of public toilets at a meeting next week.

The facilities have not been refurbished in a decade and there are plans to spend money on a raft of improvements to them.

But a facelift is on the cards and the full details are on page 3 of today’s Voice.