Wallington Cleans Up
With the excuse of the Clean for the Queen campaign the Wallington South ward councillors decided to enlist help in tackling some Wallington ‘Grot Spots’ that were outside of the Council’s jurisdiction.
We were pleased to be joined on Friday by local residents as we got to work on the rear of the shops beside Readers’ Walk in the town centre.
Armed with litter pickers and shovels, in about an hour we had filled a truck with black bags full of rubbish, some of which had clearly been around for quite some time. We also discovered double yellow lines along the rear, which had been obscured by the debris.
By the way – whilst the ‘after’ picture was being taken I was still working away picking litter round the corner at the back of Iceland – but my colleagues had forgotten all about me and nearly drove off leaving me there!
After ensuring that this area was much less of an eyesore some helperss went on to tackle litter in shrubbery on Woodcote Road, whilst Steve, Alan Fitter, our council cleaning operative & I headed off to the pathway that runs along the south side of Wallington train station. We had received complaints about the litter in this area but were having trouble getting it addressed as the council and Network Rail couldn’t agree who was responsible for the pathway. So we decided it was a mess that couldn’t wait. We did our best and cleared two areas nearest to the access to the station, but our backs gave out before we could finish the whole of the pathway. The shrubbery needs addressing so that the entangled litter can be dealt with. We have asked the local Safer Neighbourhood Team Sergeant if they could do a Community Payback Scheme here to finish the job. If not we will be back giving it another go – hopefully with more willing volunteers.
A huge thanks to the community-minded residents that came to give us a hand. You were real troupers and worked very hard.
Let’s hope the area stays litter-free for a few days at least!