Robert Buckland Weblog

I am still nursing my scratched arms, but am feeling rather proud of our efforts in Central Ward on Saturday.  The Conservative Party was running a national “Green Action Day”, so we decided to do a clean up operation, removing litter and other rubbish plus some graffiti.  My thanks to Cllr Steve Wakefield (Toothill & Westlea – he of the excellent blog) for a tub of special graffiti-busting wipes!  My further thanks to Rishi Saha at CHQ for sending us some T-shirts.  Can we have some XL sizes next time please, Rishi?
The venue was chosen by Karen Leakey, a caring and committed member of the Broadgreen Community Council, and our Borough Council candidate at the forthcoming elections.  Some residents of County Road had raised the issue with her, so this was the ideal spot for direct action.  A team of five of us set to work at 10am on a hedgerow near to the County Ground, home of Swindon Town FC.

Apart from the usual tally of plastic, glass and tin cans, the following items were found: a child’s tricycle; a traffic cone; a coat; some building waste and part of a car wheel.  We managed to fill about twenty bin bags full of rubbish, needing two cars to transport it all to Cheney Manor refuse collection site.  We had to repeatedly dive into the hedge itself, making it at times a scene reminiscent of jungle warfare.

We then followed it up with a mass leaflet drop of Broad Green.  We were delighted to be joined by some other Conservative Councillors, who helped to deliver our In Touch leaflet to homes in Rushey Platt and the Railway Village.  All in all, a good day’s work.