John Clare met up with councillors Kate Hopper, Paul Howell and Brian Stephens, along with DCC officers and a large number of council workers who descended on the subway at Staintondale to launch ‘Operation Spruce Up’ in Great Aycliffe.
This is a fourteen-month DCC environmental programme to ‘spruce up’ selected areas across County Durham. It does not include any significant capital works or spending, but is improvement work ‘over-and-above’ the normal Clean and Green environmental maintenance schedule.
Across the county, activities have included:
• cleansing of road channels, gullies and weeding
• de-greasing of pavements and chewing gum removal
• removal of graffiti
• replacing and pruning of shrub beds and trees
• litter clearance and manual sweeping
• responsible business waste management education
• environmental education – school assemblies and poster competitions to explain to children and young people the importance of environmental pride
The ‘Spruce Up’ focus in Great Aycliffe is to be the subways along Greenfield Way and Burnhill Way, and also Bluebell Woods (where we are going to try to bring back a beautiful display of bluebells!).
As the rest of us posed for the launch photos, DCC operatives were cleaning the subway, de-weeding paths and stairs, removing chewing gum, pruning borders, cutting back path edges, and – helped by some of the pupils from Byerley Park School – planting a thousand bulbs to come up next spring.
Philip Clark of the Horndale Residents Association, and GATC’s Steve Cooper were present. Local groups are central to Operation Spruce Up, which is anxious to hear from them and to help with any associated local environmental initiatives they want to attempt. If you have any individual ideas about things that might be addressed, email your ideas to civicpride@durham.gov.uk
