Residents are being encouraged to roll up their sleeves and spruce up their neighbourhoods as part of a national campaign to ‘Clean for The Queen’ in time for Her Majesty the Queen’s 90th birthday.
Whilst litter picks in York are welcome at any time, the campaign focuses on a national weekend of litter picking from Friday 4 to Sunday 6 March. It aims to inspire a million people to enjoy a few hours together tidying up, to make their local area a more pleasant environment.
Clean for The Queen is backed by organisations such as the National Trust, the RSPB, the Women’s Institute, Keep Britain Tidy and all the other major anti-litter organisations from across the UK.
The campaign asks schools, community and friends groups, businesses and individual residents to pitch in and take part. City of York Council will provide advice to organisers, will loan litter pickers on a first come, first served basis and will issue refuse bags for registered events. They will also collect filled bags of rubbish from groups of volunteers, provided this is arranged in advance.
Chris Steward, Leader of City of York Council said: “This national campaign has already seen more than 4,100 volunteers register in what is expected to be the biggest ever clean up of the country. We’d like to see as many local volunteers as possible taking part and helping to keep this city looking beautiful.”