Business Improvement District Company, NE1 is joining forces with the national Keep Britain Tidy campaign for a two-week, Great British Spring Clean event, from 17th March – 2nd April and is encouraging volunteers from Newcastle’s business community to get involved. This year, NE1 is hoping to make a bigger impact on the city by offering volunteers, who want to help, opportunities all-year round.
Businesses are invited to sign up and release teams of staff to do their bit for the city-wide spring cleaning effort. Volunteers are asked to give at least one hour of their time to a litter pick, or other clean-up activity during the two-week Spring event.
It is the second year running that NE1 has organised the event, deploying teams of volunteers from businesses across Newcastle to spruce up the city, picking up litter, painting and planting, as part of the national Keep Britain Tidy campaign.
NE1’s rapid response Clean Team who operate throughout the city centre all year round have identified a number of priority areas that need some extra attention this year, these will be the focus for the Spring Cleaning activities. Jobs on the ‘to do’ list include litter picking, sweeping, painting and jet washing.
As well as enlisting the help of businesses who can field teams of staff, NE1 will also be inviting individual attendees of their next business breakfast networking event to get involved. After the event on March 28th at the Castle Keep delegates will be asked if they would like to stay behind to take part in a general litter-pick around the area. This will give individuals a chance to play their part to make a difference to the city.
This is the 9th year that Keep Britain Tidy has organised the Spring Clean Event and the second year that NE1 has taken part in the campaign. Last year, 14 businesses took part in NE1 organised clean-up operations, with 105 volunteers at 13 events across the city. Over the two weeks, 197 bags of rubbish were collected, 2 church gardens were tidied and 1 painting project was completed.
Whilst NE1 concentrates its efforts on the city centre, it works closely with Newcastle City Council who are again supporting the campaign and encouraging local groups across all wards of the city to get involved.
NE1 is hoping to make a bigger impact this year by giving people the chance to sign up to help all year round, not just during the two-week Great British Spring Clean campaign but at other clean-up activity sessions that NE1 will be organising at different times of the year.
Businesses and individuals who want to pledge their support should register their interest at www.GetintoNewcastle.co.uk/GreatBritishSpringClean.
Tariq Albassam, Director of Operations at NE1 Ltd said: “Making sure the city looks its best and is an appealing destination for businesses, residents, and visitors continues to be one of our top priorities, and something businesses across the city rank as a high priority too. We want to turbo-charge our efforts by capitalising on the national Keep Britain tidy campaign, and using this as a springboard to sign up volunteers to spruce up the city and get involved in clean-up activities throughout the year.
“We are a proud city with passionate people and we know that many want to do their bit to support their wonderful city. We have the expertise, the resources and the equipment, we just need a team of willing volunteers who want to get involved and make a difference."
Ben Quigley, Executive Chair of Different Narrative who took part in last year’s Great British Spring Clean Event said: “It was a fantastic opportunity to help clean up the city and to bring our team together on such a worthwhile project, we all found it very fulfilling. We helped tidy up the grounds of St John’s church, litter picking and planting and the church was delighted with the results, which were transformative. We got so much out of the event, that we are lining up to take part again this year and are keen to join NE1’s register of willing volunteers for projects throughout the year.”
Sara Ragan from Garage PR who also took part in two of the Great British Clean up sessions last year said; “It is amazing what a difference we made in an hour. We were tackling litter picking on the Quayside and by the end of our session, our team of five had filled ten bin bags of rubbish. Many hands do make light work and it was great to feel like I was doing my bit to help keep the city clean. What was also amazing was the public’s reaction to our efforts, it helped raise awareness that keeping the city tidy is everyone’s responsibility and a number of people who saw us asked how they could get involved.”
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