On Tuesday (19th May), a group of children from the Wigan Youth Zone teamed up with Kingdom Local Authority Support to tackle the growing problem of litter-related crime in Mesnes Park.
The group, who took part in an organised litter pick across the park’s green spaces sought to rid the area of left-behind bottles, plastic waste, and other disused items. The purpose of the event wasn’t merely to clean the space but to raise the salience of environmental waste and litter across the town and local community.
Hosted by the Wigan Youth Zone and Kingdom Local Authority Support, we aimed to instil a sense of community togetherness in tackling littering across Wigan. We hope that, by residents seeing a group of young people taking a stand against environmental crime locally, that they too might join in the mission to clean up Wigan’s parks.
John Roberts, our Chief Services Officer at Kingdom Local Authority Support, said: “It was a pleasure to get stuck in with the young people from Wigan Youth Zone and start reclaiming some of these green spaces. Spaces, such as Mesnes Park, have all too often fallen victim to litter and become hotspots for environmental crime.
“Seeing a group of young people with so much pride in making their community, a cleaner, and greener, space for everyone is something we should encourage: not just in Wigan but across the country too.”
The 13-strong team removed waste from Wigan’s 30-acre Victorian park which lies north-west of the town centre. Mesnes Park has increasingly fallen victim to a growing wave of litter in recent years, with community groups popping up from across the town to try and sort out the issue (UK Litterpicking Groups).
The team of young people aged between 8-19 are all members of that state-of-the-art youth charity Wigan Youth Zone. The group which provides young people with a safe place to meet friends, learn new skills, and dedicated youth work support, sees instilling this sense of community pride as integral to their mission.
In time, Kingdom Local Authority Support and Wigan Youth Zone hope events such as this inspire the town to once and for all stamp out littering.