Volunteer Army Help Clean Up Southall

The Great British Autumn Clean event takes to the streets

Southall’s community rallied together last Saturday (13 October) to give its streets an autumn tidy-up. 

The Great British Autumn Clean event saw over 50 volunteers pull together to rid local streets of rubbish. Members of the local community were also joined by 12 volunteers from the Ealing Police Cadets. 

Organised by Ealing Council in partnership with Berkeley, West London College, Southall Community Alliance, Southall Community Action Group, West Area, Everyone Active and Amigos, the event is part of regular community clean ups.  

Virendra Sharma, MP for Ealing, Southall said, “Fly tipping is a blight in Southall and I am delighted to see the work of the Great British Autumn Clean and all the volunteers who came.  We are taking a stand, by stepping up and taking pride in our local area we are saying enough is enough, our environment matters.  There is still much more work to be done, but this excellent initiative is taking the message to local people and building community networks to end the mess in Southall.

“These volunteers are local heroes, ending the eyesore and clearing up this attraction to rodents and vermin. I would like to thank them for continuing to make a difference in their neighbourhood.”

Councillor Mik Sabiers, Ealing cabinet member for environment and highways said, “It is great to see a community come together, taking pride in the area they live and tackling the persistent problem in Southall of fly tipping.  I encourage the many that care about their local area to report fly tipping and help us to identify those that do it so that action can be taken to tackle it at the source.  The fantastic response to the Autumn clear up is a clear message to those that think it is perfectly acceptable to dump their waste that Southall says No!”    

Damian Leydon, operations director at Berkeley (West Thames), commented: “We really want to make a positive impact on our local neighbourhood and the clean-up events have been a great opportunity to meet more of the local community.  It’s hugely rewarding to see the trucks filled at the end of the morning, so we want to be part of many more of these events to keep Southall looking its best.”

Mrs Sohal, a volunteer said, “I’m really proud to be part of the 50-plus strong team that turned out to clean up Southall’s streets.  Southall is a fantastic, diverse neighbourhood but it can be let down by the rubbish on the pavements – hopefully our efforts at the weekend will kickstart some momentum in the community to make sure our streets are kept clean for everyone to enjoy.”

October 24th 2018