Earlier this week I was part of a group of councillors who turned up to thank volunteers who had spent the morning clearing rubbish and dead vegetation from a section of the Parkland Walk. The session was organised by the Council’s waste contractor Veolia, who encouraged their own staff to volunteer. In the space of two hours four lorry loads of debris was removed.
It’s great to see a large company like Veolia putting something back into the local community. Many of the Veolia volunteers I spoke to lived locally and used the Parkland Walk, so were delighted to have been able to help improve the area.
However, even this big event only cleared a short section between Oxford Road, Upper Tollington Park and Stapleton Hall Road. That’s why as local councillors we’ve also awarded a small £500 grant to the Friends of the Parkland Walk to help organise more volunteering sessions to try to clean up the Walk (see previous post about the small grants). I hope this volunteering push can bring people together and really make a difference to the Walk.