Great Cotswolds Clean up competition begins on 23 March!

Now in its fourth year Cotswold District Council’s ‘Great Cotswolds Clean up’ prize competition will get underway on Saturday 23 March.  The Council is inviting community groups to clean up their neighbourhoods and possibly share in a £1,000 prize fund donated by the Midcounties Cooperative store in Bourton-on-the-Water.

From Saturday 23 March until Sunday 28 April schools, community groups and other volunteers (such as brownies) are being encouraged to:

  •  carry out a litter pick in their communities
  • take ‘before’ and ‘after’ photographs
  • tell the Council how they would use the prize money to enhance their environment.

The launch of the competition coincides with Keep Britain Tidy’s Great British Spring Clean weekend which has done so much to raise awareness of this issue nationally. Groups organising litter picks before the 23 March launch date will still be encouraged to enter the competition.

There will be three prizes on offer – £500 for the winner, £300 for second place and £200 for third place.

Applying to enter is very simple – just email cdc@cotswold.gov.uk or call 01285 623123 and provide the location of your litter pick, together with the name of a community representative who is willing to liaise with the Council.  We will expect that person to take the ‘before’ and ‘after’ photographs of the area being tidied, and provide details of the size of the work party and the type and amount of waste collected.  When the competition concludes, a panel of CDC judges will draw up a short-list and visit the finalists to assess the work done.

The Council can supply bags, pickers, gloves and high visibility jackets for clean-up work. It will be of great benefit to the environmental team if volunteers could stagger the take-up of equipment over the duration of the competition so that we can use our resources to best effect.  We can also arrange for Ubico Ltd to make special collections of filled bags after litter picks. Please call 01285 623123 if you require assistance with equipment or collection of filled bags.

Midcounties Co-operative store in Bourton-on-the-Water will be arranging a local community litter pick.  More information will be available in store.