Big tidy up for Ditherington in Shrewsbury

A piece of land behind Whitehouse Gardens in Ditherington, Shrewsbury is now clean and tidy thanks to the help of lots of enthusiastic volunteers. 

The big clean took place on Tuesday 29 May 2012 and involved around 60 people from Severnside Housing, Tesco, the Community Payback team, Shropshire Council and Network Rail (who own the land), who worked together to pick up flytipped rubbish. 

Around 30 of the volunteers were from Network Rail, who also provided high-vis jackets, bin bags, a skip, refreshments and a small tipper machine which travelled up and down the stretch being cleaned for bags and large items, such as mattresses, children’s toys, fencing and chairs. 

In preparation of the big clean Network Rail also strimmed the area and a number of visits were made to the site to assess what needed to be done. 

The weight of rubbish collected was estimated at three to four tonnes. 

Martin Bennett, Shropshire Council’s deputy Cabinet member responsible for streetscene, said:

“I’d like to thank all of the people for giving their time to clean this neglected piece of land. 

“A staggering amount of rubbish was collected on the day which had all been dumped and thrown over a very high fence.  This must have cost Network Rail a considerable amount of money that could have been better spent elsewhere. 

“It was an extremely successful day and we hope that the area will now remain clean and tidy.” 

Flytipping is against the law and Network Rail, Severnside Housing and Shropshire Council are now working together to try and catch those responsible.