The two-week GBSC, an initiative spearheaded by Keep Britain Tidy, ended on Sunday and saw thousands of people across the country helping to clean up parks, streets and beaches. 

In Allerdale, a number of socially-distanced community clean-ups were organised by different groups, supported by Allerdale Borough Council. The Workington Nature Partnership team also organised several events as part of the Marine Conservation Society’s Great British Beach Clean week, which ran from September 18 to 25. 

To mark the end of the GBSC scheme the Allerdale Local Focus Hub organised a community litter pick in the St Michael’s ward of Workington on Friday (September 25) with staff joined by partners from Cumbria Police, Cumbria County Council, Cumbria Fire & Rescue Service, North Cumbria Primary Care and Groundwork Choices for the event.  

The successful clean-up ended with 12 bags of rubbish being collected.

Despite the initiative officially coming to an end, members of the public can help keep their communities clean all year round by making sure litter and other unwanted items are always disposed of correctly and by reporting issues such as fly-tipping and dog fouling to the Council. 

To report problems use the myAllerdale mobile app (downloadable from the Google and Apple app stores) or the ‘report it’ section of the Council’s website at https://www.allerdale.gov.uk/en/report/. 

Cllr Tony Markley, Executive member for environmental services, said:

“The Council and our partners take keeping the borough’s streets clean and tidy extremely seriously with staff working hard to make our communities nice places to live. 

“I’d encourage the public to support our efforts by making sure you dispose of your own waste properly and report any issues to us so we can take action.” 

For more info on the work the Council does to keep the community clean, go to https://www.allerdale.gov.uk/en/cleaning-allerdale/.