FOLLOWING the massive success of this year’s Clean for The Queen national clean-up weekend in March, Keep Britain Tidy has unveiled plans for a follow-up campaign next year.

More than 250,000 people joined the campaign, supported by 400 local authorities, along with the WI, all the nation’s anti-litter charities and corporate partners including Costa, McDonald’s, KFC, Waitrose and Greggs.

In south Cumbria local businesses and groups such as Bootle WI embraced the scheme and rolled up their sleeves to get litter picking.

The announcement of the 2017 event was made at an event in parliament celebrating the success of Clean for The Queen, which saw 300,000 bags of rubbish – containing enough litter to stretch from John O’Groats to Land’s End - removed from our streets, parks and beaches.

This announcement was welcomed by the Evening Mail, who will be working with groups up until October to clean up Barrow and the surrounding area.

This year the Evening Mail are reaching out to the community to ask which areas you feel could most benefit from a Big Clean. So far the Big Clean has been supported by Centrica and Kimberly-Clark and there are already two cleans scheduled to take place in May.

After asking residents to get in touch and with the guidance of Streetscene at Barrow Borough Council, we have decided to target the following areas in the upcoming months. 

1. James Freel Close 

2. Cocken Lake area 

3. Ormsgill Reservoir 

4. Red River playground near Tesco in Roose

VOTE NOW:

Which area do you think would benefit most from a Big Clean?
These areas have been put forwards as places their communities feel need a good clean! Which do you think would benefit most. Do you know anywhere else that would benefit from a Big Clean? Please share your suggestions via our Facebook page or email gabrielle.rowley@nwemail.co.uk.
James Freel Close
Cocken Lake Area
Ormsgill Reservoir
Red River playground near Tesco in Roose

Peter Buckley, streetcare officer at Barrow Borough Council, has been coordinating the cleans alongside the Evening Mail. 

He said: “The streetcare department, on behalf of the council, has always actively supported the Big Clean. Once again this year we are more than happy to help in any way we can and it will be the same in 2017. 

"It is only by working in partnership at such events that hopefully we will be able to put across the message of how important it is to look after where we live and the environment in general.”

Readers can visit our website or Facebook page to vote for the area they feel deserves the most attention and leave comments to suggest even more areas for the Big Clean. 

For any more information about how you can get involved with the Big Clean, email: gabrielle.rowley@nwemail.co.uk.