News from Reading Borough Council
The council has launched a new anti-littering campaign to encourage residents to ‘Love Your Park’. The campaign aims to encourage people to put litter in the park bins or take it home – and will encourage visitors to report litter and full bins for emptying.
As the weather gets warmer and lockdown restrictions ease, more and more people will be taking advantage of Reading’s beautiful parks and open spaces. Whilst everyone is encouraged to enjoy the benefits of getting out into nature, the potential for litter in parks increases.
Last year saw an unprecedented increase in the use of parks and open spaces nationally under pandemic restrictions. This trend was seen locally in Reading across all parks. At the same time, the council’s street and park cleansing team collected more than 50% more litter from Reading’s parks last year than in the year before. Litter spoils the environment for everyone. Not only does it look awful; it attracts rats, is potentially a health hazard and can harm wildlife.
Major parks like Prospect and Palmer Parks have bins emptied daily, with the majority of the other parks at least three times a week. If you see an overflowing bin you can report this right away using a smartphone – search for the Love Clean Streets app, which you can use to take a photo and send in an instand report.
The Council’s popular Reading Adopt Your Street (RAYS) programme enables companies, individuals, community groups and organisations, such as schools and youth groups to select a street, open space, footpath, park or shopping area to keep tidy through regular clean-ups. RAYS Volunteers are provided with litter pickers, 100% recycled plastic bags, gloves and hi-vis jackets. We hope more individuals and local groups will sign up to litter pick their local park over the coming months.
Photo: Andrew Smith.