We have made steady progress this quarter, with growing numbers of volunteers getting involved in removing litter from across our city. The Great British Spring Clean added momentum and got new groups involved - now we need to build on that.

The GBSC took place from 15th to 31st March, with plenty of activity taking place. In total, 17 different groups across the city collected 499 bags of litter, plus approximately 200 bags equivalent in unbaggable items. It was good to see such a wide range of activity taking place right across the city, with more than 200 individual volunteers lending a hand for more than 360 volunteer hours. These were only volunteers who registered their litter pick results on our Facebook page or reported their results to us - the full numbers would be higher than this, due to activity that we didn􏰄t capture.

We are grateful to Peterborough City Council for their support with the launch of the GBSC on Saturday 15th March, providing advertising and equipment, and for getting the Mayor, Councillors and council officers involved.

 

However, a one-off event every year is not enough to deal with the epidemic of litter that we are facing. It needs a more radical, systemic approach, all year round and we will be working hard to achieve that.

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As part of the GBSC, Peterborough Positive worked with volunteers from Barclays, Buckles, Greenwoods and NatWest to clean up some difficult areas around the city center including Stanley Park, the Magistrates Courts and the Embankment by the Key Theatre.

We are delighted to be working with RSA Insurance once again. Last year more than 100 employees collected more than 560 bags of litter, plus a more or less equal amount of non-baggable items. That will be hard to beat this year, but RSA have made a start with two litter picks in March.

We have also led or scheduled corporate litter picks for IT Naturally, Iris Software and Anglian Water, and have other companies in the pipeline.

 

Congratulations to our friends and fellow litter pickers who have joined PLW in being recognised in the council􏰄s Civic Awards: Margaret and Michael Faulkner in Parnwell; PE4 Wombles across Werrington, Walton, Gunthorpe and Paston; and Mark Fishpool in Dogsthorpe.

Last December, Mark Fishpool of Pride in the Community began to systematically remove years of accumulated rubbish from our Parkway system. He has now, with a small army of volunteers and a phenomenal amount of effort and dedication, carried out a litter pick of the whole system including the A47 from the Castor laybys to the Eye roundabout, showing what can be done, after years of neglect. The question now is - how can the parkways be kept clean, so all this volunteer work does not get wasted?

Although PLW itself complies with the council􏰄s guidance not to schedule events on roads faster than 30 mph, we applaud Mark􏰄s efforts because they contribute hugely to Cleaning Up Peterborough. The Parkways overlap with the off road areas where we do schedule our litter picks - it􏰄s all part of the same system and litter doesn􏰄t respect boundaries, especially when the wind blows.

At the end of last year, we agreed with Aragon that we would put clean recyclables (cans, plastic bottles and glass bottles) into a different colour (blue) bag, for them to route these items for recycling rather than incineration. This is working well, with many bags of recyclables collected so far this year - see the latest count on our website home page

We also separate out batteries and vapes (which can ignite and cause fires), weapons such as knives, nitrous oxide canisters and needles.

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We get into some badly neglected and abandoned locations right across Peterborough and are happy to share what we find with the authorities. For example, we are reporting all needle finds to the Public Health team to contribute to their statistics about drug use across Peterborough. We also report occupied encampments to the council - these seem to be on the increase again, post Covid. We are starting to share information with the Police about any litter (such as discarded weapons) that may be linked to criminal activity.

East and North Wards remain heavily littered areas despite several PLW Litter Picking Events (LPE􏰄s), partly due to there being insufficient bins.

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Bag count numbers do not include high volumes of heavy and bulky (􏰎unbaggable􏰄) items, or the large amounts of litter collected independently by local groups such as PE4 Wombles, Dogsthorpe Litter Pick and Hampton in Action, or from the Parkways by Pride in Our Community.

 

Our trial of 􏰎lamp post bags􏰄, attached to lamp posts and fences along pathways without any bins, was astonishingly successful, with the bags being well used and reducing litter in all locations. We have begun to roll out a more formal programme of installing more lamp post bags along routes where we have local volunteers to maintain them. The routes are mapped, shared with the council and monitored by us. We are enormously grateful to the dedicated volunteers who are looking after and replacing these bags on a regular basis.

 

We are beginning to roll out a Pathways Action Plan􏰈 (PAP), combining future litter picks, 􏰎lamp post bags􏰄 and eventually bins. The routes identified offer the greatest opportunity to improve the conditions for walking and cycling and are to be established using a range of factors and objectives based on PLW surveys and current LPE􏰄s.

Delivery of the PAP will be evidence-based, using a range of data sources and informed by the views and aspirations of residents, visitors and local groups in Peterborough, including people who do not currently cycle or walk on a regular basis.

 

Bins are needed in many locations, and we have shown that any bin is better than none. However, we see many bins unused or overflowing and with better management can take place to prevent spillages of litter and better utilisation of resources.

 

In the next quarter, we plan to pilot the use of some different types of bins .

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Thank You

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