The teams behind Newark’s biggest infrastructure projects have been sprucing up the town as part of the Great British Spring Clean.
Twenty-three volunteers from National Highways’ A46 Newark Bypass improvement, Urban and Civic, the master developer of Middlebeck, and contractors Breheny and ECL Civils who are working on the town’s Southern Link Road, spent two hours collecting litter from Farndon underpass, Great North Road and Winthorpe underpass.
Between them, they collected 45 bags of rubbish, including a tent, a set of keys and several number plates.
The event was organised in conjunction with Newark and Sherwood District Council who supplied the litter picking equipment and arranged to collect the rubbish at the end.
National Highways Senior Project Manager Phil Boffey, who took part in the event, said:
“It was great to get out and do something positive for the community in which we are working, especially as we were joined by colleagues from one of Newark’s other big infrastructure projects.
“It was surprising how much rubbish we collected. Littering is a dreadful social problem. It’s not just unsightly, it can have a deadly impact on wildlife. If people don’t drop litter in the first place it wouldn’t need to be picked up – so we urge people to take their litter home.”
Simon Murphy, Community Development Lead from Urban and Civic’s Middlebeck development, said: “Along with our friends at ECL Civils and Breheny, we were delighted to be asked to take part in this great initiative for Newark on Trent, and to play a small part in making the area we live and work in a tidier and safer place.”
Back for its ninth year, the Great British Spring Clean is the nation’s biggest mass-action environmental campaign and takes place from 15 – 31 March.
National Highways, which recently launched a campaign to raise awareness of the dangers of litter to wildlife, is responsible for the removal of litter from motorways and some strategic A-roads. Litter collections on most A-roads are the responsibility of local authorities and National Highways works with them wherever possible so they can take advantage of any of the planned works and associated traffic management to safely litter pick at the same time.
