Heighington Parish Litter Group’s (HPLG) first Coffee Morning was very well attended on Saturday 7th February.
Heighington Village Hall was packed with people who had come to see the presentation of Heighington Parish Environment Awards and to hear about the launch of the Heighington Parish PALs scheme.
The Chairman of HPLG, Peter Smyth, welcomed visitors and invited Councillor Gerald Lee, Mayor of Darlington, to present Heighington Environmental Awards to Joan and Kim Trotter in recognition of all the work they had put in to the regular litter picks around the parish.
The Mayor also presented Anne Dobson with the MacLean Silver Rose Bowl (HPLG’s premier award) and a certificate. Anne not only regularly clears litter from Redworth village, she also works tirelessly at raising funds and organising events in St. Michael’s Church and Redworth Village Hall.
Valerie Bedocs then explained the PALs scheme which aims to get people to pledge to pick up a piece of litter a day. This does not sound like the sort of movement that will change the world, but all the most important events in history started from very small beginnings.
The majority of us hate to see litter about the place but feel helpless to do anything about it. The PALs plan enables us all to do something and if we were all to sign up to be a PAL we can make a huge difference.
Not only will we improve our environment we will save millions of pounds a year that is presently spent on clearing away our litter.
The concept of PALs grabbed the imagination of our visitors on the day and they willingly signed up to become a PAL. Anybody who missed the coffee morning does not have to worry there will be many more opportunities to sign up to be a PAL.
Heighington Parish Litter Group has been carrying out monthly litter picks for ten years now and we reckon we have filled nearly 4,000 large bin bags of rubbish from the verges around our parish in that time. We know we have made a difference and now with the launch of Heighington Parish PALs we are certain we will be able to make an even bigger difference in the future.
We would like to thank everybody for their support and enthusiasm.
left to right: Ruth Lee, Joan Trotter, Anne Dobson, Kim Trotter and Mayor of Darlington Gerald Lee.
