8th Apr 2017

Keeping Fakenham Town Clean

Fakenham Racecourse directors and staff donated a morning of their time to litter picking Fakenham Town on Friday 31st March as part of the racecourse company’s social engagement and responsibility plan for 2017.

 

“We had a very successful and rewarding morning collecting rubbish in and around the town and we had many supportive and thankful comments from passers-by,” said Fakenham’s Chief Executive David Hunter. “However, it was truly shocking to see just how much rubbish is thoughtlessly and destructively thrown to the ground. In the three and a half hours the ten of us spent collecting rubbish, we filled a staggering fifty large bags plus many other items including wooden pallets, car tyres, old road signs, traffic cones and plastic containers. It is dreadful to think that so much rubbish was collected within such a small area – just multiply that to cover the whole country and you are talking about thousands of tonnes of rubbish, all of which should never have been thrown onto the ground in the first place. It is, therefore, excellent news that yesterday the government announced it will impose fines of £150 on litter louts  (see http://www.itv.com/news/2017-04-10/government-to-hit-litter-louts-in-the-pocket-with-150-fines/ ) in a bid to tidy up Britain and reduce the rubbish mountain that is lurking in every bush, verge and gully.”

 

On a more positive note, the group found very few plastic carrier bags which would indicate that the legislation to charge 5p per bag is having some effect. However, against this they found most of the rubbish consisted of snack food and drink packaging which is quite obviously thrown out cars or deliberately dropped onto the ground by far too many thoughtless and shameful individuals. All of the rubbish was kindly disposed of, free of charge, by Fakenham Skips Ltd where it was hand sorted and recycled with none of it going to landfill.

 

Racecourse Chairman Nigel Savory said:

“It was a great way to put something back into the community and hopefully it might prick some consciences when people next think to blight our town and countryside by throwing rubbish. It was a really good team building experience, which finished with a well-deserved pint at The Bull in Fakenham,  and I throw the gauntlet down to other racecourses to do the same and better our fifty bag collection!”

litter picking 4

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David Hunter