North Tyneside will be looking spick and span this spring thanks to the return of an annual campaign and commitment from the local community.
With help from local residents, businesses, schools and community groups, the Big Spring Clean aims to combat litter and dog fouling in North Tyneside.
And this week, pupils from Richardson Dees Primary School helped launch the campaign, which is celebrating its 11th year.
The pupils were invited to take part in a clean-up of the school grounds alongside the council’s environmental mascot Waldo the Wonderdog.
Cllr Carl Johnson, cabinet member with responsibility for the Environment, said: “As the council, we strive to make sure our borough is an attractive place to live, work and; visit, and we couldn’t manage that without the help of the local community.
“The community involvement we see every year from the Big Spring Clean is fantastic. So many of our residents get involved and the pride they take in their local area makes our job so much easier.
“I’d like to say a big thank-you to everyone that gets involved when we run this campaign – so many people and groups in our borough work to keep their local area spotless every day.”
Also part of the campaign, young people from the Princes Trust worked to transform an area at TyneMet College.
The group took neglected planters and improved them with help from the council – planting bulbs to grow over the spring and carrying out a litter pick on the grounds.
Running from March until the end of May, the Big Spring Clean invites the public to take part in council and community-led litter picks, that the authority will support by providing gloves, bags and litter pickers.
The campaign has seen extraordinary successes in the past, with over seven tonnes of litter being removed from the borough when the initiative was ran in 2018.
This year’s Big Spring Clean is part of the council’s Love Your Street campaign, encouraging residents to take pride in their local community.
There are a number of ways residents can get involved with this campaign, including litter picks and flower plantings.
The council will support residents in their efforts, supplying litter picks and bags for any street clean-ups and offering to collect any rubbish collected afterwards.
To find out about council-run litter picks, or to organise your own, email loveyourstreet@northtyneside.gov.uk, or call 0345 2000 103.
ENDS