A community clean-up crew from Calico and Burnley Council headed out this week to tackle the growing amounts of rubbish being dumped in residential estates.
The team target the Griffin and Barclay Hills estates up near Accrington Road annually, bringing heavy machinery and over 30 colleagues to tackle the problem.
Andrew Hodgson from Calico’s Clean and Green Team, said: “Last year, we removed over 20 tonnes of rubbish from the brook between the estates. We’re aiming to do something similar this time”.
The team from Calico work closely with Burnley Borough Council because ‘there’s that’s much’ rubbish to remove – including furniture, mattresses, household waste, shopping trollies and children’s toys.
Andrew continued: “The council brings their machinery to help – it would be really difficult without them. All the ground is repaired afterwards to make the area look nice again”.
The community clean up team was made up of 15 colleagues from Burnley Borough Council and 15 from Calico – with several volunteers from the Community Payback scheme helping out too.
Brian Baker, one of the team from Burnley Borough Council, said: “Teams go down throughout the year with litter pickers, but you need machinery to get the job done properly.
“I like seeing the before and after, but I hate seeing the area like this. There needs to be a solution to this problem to stop us coming back yearly – like a communal skip that’s emptied regularly”.
Valley Street Community Centre, which is in the middle of the clean-up area, kindly provided a warm space for the clean-up crew throughout the day.
Andrew continued: “We’d like to say a huge thank you to Valley Street Community Centre for providing us with warm drinks, toilet facilities and a offering us a place to sit and enjoy some lunch together”.