Friends of Burdiehouse Burn Valley Park ask community to 'Keep it Clean'

The Friends of Burdiehouse Burn Valley Park have made a plea for residents to ‘Keep it Clean’ and bin their litter.
Watch more of our videos on Shots! 
and live on Freeview channel 276
Visit Shots! now

This comes after the group conducted a mammoth clean up exercise to clear a mountain of rubbish dropped in the park during lockdown.

The Group has been running a ‘Big Spring Clean’ for a number of years, but normal activity was suspended due to the Covid-19 crisis.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Since then, the group has relied on individual community activists to help keep the park clean.

But the extra visitors during Covid has meant more dropped litter and rubbish, which has added to the problem of fly tipping in the area.

Nonetheless, the Friends group, by setting out in ones and two, have cleared vast amounts of litter.

In the last few months volunteers have cleared more than a dozen supermarket trollies and cages in the burn; cleared four dumped wheelie bins and bicycles from the burn and park area; removed more than 400 glass bottles and cans; cleared dozens of face masks and rubber gloves as well as 150 used dog bags that had been dumped by people on walks.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The clean up attracted more than 70 local volunteers for their latest outing in late March and has worked with the Edinburgh City council to tackle fly tipping.

Volunteers partaking in a community clean up of the parkVolunteers partaking in a community clean up of the park
Volunteers partaking in a community clean up of the park

Bruce Bennet, secretary of the Friends group, said: “We’ve been deeply moved and inspired that so many local residents have given up their time to clean up so much of the horrific volume of litter that’s been dropped or dumped by a small minority of park users.

“We now know more than ever that this is a park for all ages and is appreciated by all ages, especially having seen the wonderful work that’s been done by Craigour Park Primary School. But we have to condemn that minority who have been too selfish or stupid to simply hang on to their rubbish until they get to the bins that are beside or near all the park entrances and exits.

“Nobody enjoys picking up litter and let alone clearing up a used dog bag. It must be one of the dumbest things anyone can do. We would urge people of all ages to respect the park and bin their litter.”

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The community group is also working with the council, Edinburgh and Lothians Greenspace Trust and the local community to bring forward more plans for tree and bulb planting and by improving facilities at the park.

Litter collected by volunteers during lockdownLitter collected by volunteers during lockdown
Litter collected by volunteers during lockdown

Councillor Karen Doran, environment vice convener, said: “Our cleansing teams continue to work round the clock, despite the pandemic and we’ve reviewed and increased litter bin capacity at key locations in anticipation of the continued rise in demand for them.

“We’re also partnering with Zero Waste Scotland and Keep Scotland Beautiful to run campaigns to encourage people to bin their litter or take it home with them.

“We welcome the efforts by local communities to help clear litter in their neighbourhoods – and very much appreciate the hard work carried out by our many litter picking groups and Friends of Parks groups who we’re happy to provide with equipment and collect the rubbish afterwards.”

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Another clean up has been organised for Saturday, the April 10 at 10am meeting at Burdiehouse Crescent. Social distancing measures and Covid precautions will apply.

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this article. We're more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by coronavirus impacts our advertisers.

If you haven't already, please consider supporting our trusted, fact-checked journalism by taking out a digital subscription.

Related topics:

Comment Guidelines

National World encourages reader discussion on our stories. User feedback, insights and back-and-forth exchanges add a rich layer of context to reporting. Please review our Community Guidelines before commenting.