Sevenoaks District Council supports Great British spring community clean up

Sevenoaks District Council has pledged its support for this year’s Great British Spring Clean, run by environmental charity Keep Britain Tidy.

The campaign, which runs from 20 March to 13 April 2020, will see up to 600,000 people taking action to clean up streets, parks and beaches across the country.

The Great British Spring Clean brings together individuals, community organisations, businesses and councils to show they love where they live and, in 2019, more than half a million #LitterHeroes collected more than 900,000 bags of rubbish.

Sevenoaks District Council is encouraging residents to take part or arrange a clean-up event during the campaign. The Council is offering to loan litter pickers and sacks to people wishing to organise an event and will also collect the sacks once finished.

Sevenoaks District Council’s Cabinet Member for ‘Cleaner and Greener’, Cllr Margot McArthur, said: “We’re so pleased to be involved in this year’s Great British Spring Clean and we hope as many residents as possible will take part. We are very lucky to live in a beautiful part of the country and it’s great to see so many people take pride in where they live. If you can’t organise your own event there are lots of clean-ups throughout the District that you can attend.”

Residents and community groups who would like to organise a clean-up event in the Sevenoaks District should email recycling@sevenoaks.gov.uk to arrange support. Resources are limited so people wishing to organise an event should enquire as early as possible.

To find out more about events in the Sevenoaks District, visit www.sevenoaks.gov.uk/gbspringclean

To find out more about the Great British Spring Clean or to sign up to an existing event, visit www.keepbritaintidy.org or follow #KeepKentClean and #GBSpringClean on social media.

The Great British Spring Clean is the country’s biggest mass-action environmental campaign and was first run in 2017. In 2019, 563,163 volunteers took part, including more than 175,000 school children. In total, volunteers collected more than 4,300 tonnes of litter – enough to fill more 239,000 wheelie bins. In total 17,000 events were held over the campaign period and 272 local authorities took part.