The Kings Heath and Brandwood litter picking group was set up by Ruth Davies and Andrea Quigley in the spring of 2019. Kings Heath BID funded pickers, gloves, hoops, high viz vests and other equipment, and Birmingham City Council provide the bags.
Prior to spring 2020, the group met at the BID office in Station Road every month on a Saturday morning. During lockdown people took a kit home with them and have been picking up the litter in their local areas (provided it was safe to do so).
The group has partnered with litter picking groups in Moseley, Balsall Heath and Cannon Hill and is working towards an ‘Adopt a Street’ system which has been extremely successful in Erdington. It is early days, with eleven people signed up to ‘Adopt a Street’.
The aim is to take this project forward successfully, which will lead to a greater need for pickers, hoops, gloves and high viz vests. The group administrators are recording which streets have been adopted and are calling for people to come forwards to help streets that are currently without volunteers. Each person completes a form giving their details and their time commitment.
Once the current lockdown is over group picks will be able to resume, as will liaison with other areas and groups to target particularly bad places e.g. parks, car parks and specific streets.
Issues such as graffiti and fly tipping will continue to be reported to Birmingham City Council.
In addition, a very new group has been established called ‘Green Spacers’ which includes leads of litter picking groups across Birmingham. Joining in with this will enhance the Kings Heath and Brandwood Litter Picking Group’s capabilities and will help it to contribute to working to clear Birmingham of litter through joint activity.
The group’s aims going forward:
-
Work with businesses through the BID. Continue to encourage people to join it through the ‘Enjoy Kings Heath’ Facebook page. Encourage businesses to take responsibility for litter on their patch.
-
Develop the ‘Adopt a Street’ approach. For this it needs funding to purchase litter picking equipment.
-
Work with local groups to target specific areas as soon as the group is in a position to do so.
-
Strengthen the Kings Heath and Brandwood Litter Picking Group; not only does the group work to keep the streets clean but provides social and other networking opportunities.
-
Meet every two weeks instead of every month.
-
Seek and secure funding to purchase equipment.
For more information about the Kings Heath and Brandwood Litter Picking Group, please contact Andrea Quigley: andreaquig@gmail.com