Council and communities support Summer Clean 2021
Towns and villages across East Ayrshire are cleaner, greener and more vibrant after the Council and communities joined forces to support the Keep Scotland Beautiful summer clean 2021 campaign.
The East Ayrshire litter taskforce included volunteers from our communities, Cleaner Communities, Vibrant Communities, Greener Communities, Community Payback, the Corporate Enforcement Unit, the Risk Management Centre’s mobile CCTV unit and Police Scotland; who have all worked to clean up litter and tackle environmental crime like dog fouling and fly tipping.
Each day the Greener Communities team worked from 7.15am and 10am power washing the streets within Cumnock and Kilmarnock town centre. They cleaned under bins and street furniture, removing cigarette ends and generally removing any grime and dirt from our streets.
Additional street sweepers were drafted in to help with the deep clean, mechanically sweeping the pavements.
At 10am the taskforce moved on to focus on various communities including Shortlees, Mauchline, Kilmaurs and Darvel.
Our green spaces also received some TLC with Covid safe clean ups taking place at Kay Park, Woodroad Park, Centre Stane in Mauchline and Morton Park in Kilmaurs and Darvel.
Councillor Jim McMahon, Cabinet Member for Older People and Community Safety said: “There is no reason why our town centres can’t be pristine. Everyone has a responsibility to take action when it comes to littering. The Council can organise taskforces and the CEU can issue Fixed Penalty Notices but we need our communities to take a zero tolerance approach to littering and for littering to become unacceptable.
“Working in partnership with our communities is key to successfully tackling littering and environmental crime. It is heartening to see people taking time out of their busy lives to work with our employees helping to keep their communities cleaner, greener and vibrant.
“I would like to thank everyone involved for their hard work and for ensuring that East Ayrshire is looking great for the local community and for visitors.”
Councillor Sally Cogley, Chair of the Cleaner, Greener Member Officer Working Group said: “I was delighted to be part of the East Ayrshire litter taskforce and to participate in the Keep Scotland Beautiful Summer Clean 2021 campaign. I am determined to tackle littering and environmental crime. It is affecting our communities and our country. Scotland is stunning and so is East Ayrshire! We should all be trying to keep it that way.
“I am so grateful to the taskforce and to our communities for organising their own clean ups. We really shouldn’t have to do this though. If people just used the bins provided we could focus our energy and budgets on projects that would make East Ayrshire an even better place to live, play and work.”