Isle of Wight Green Gym joining the
CPRE-IW’s ‘Stop the drop!’ campaign.
The Isle of Wight branch of the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE-IW) has been actively encouraging local groups of volunteers here on the Island to take part in the National Office of CPRE’s campaign to ‘Stop the Drop’.
CPRE-IW has been awarding grants to volunteer groups for their work in removing litter and rubbish from around the Island. During a recent session of the IW Green Gym the group was presented with a cheque for £100 by Chairman of CPRE-IW, John Langley, in recognition of the ongoing work the Green Gym does to help prevent the littering of the Island’s countryside.
Responding to the presentation the IW Green Gym’s treasurer Geoff Harris commented
“We are very grateful for this award, Our running costs are ever increasing particularly insurance, our use of the van and its fuel, the upkeep and replacement of tools as well as phone calls and postage. Every contribution helps us keep up with these demands”.
IW Green Gym volunteers have always made it a responsibility if they can to recover any litter found during their weekly activities around the Island; but in addition to that commitment earlier this summer they again undertook several sessions to help to remove rubbish from some of the Island’s beaches.
Recently at Watershoot Bay, the IW Green Gym held this year’s session to help to clean up the group's adopted beach. A successful day saw 29 volunteers take part. This was the fourth successive year in which the group has cleaned the shoreline here of debris, the majority of which had been washed in on the tide. Over that period more than 100 bags have been removed from the beach. Again this year's beach clean was also possible with thanks to help from The National Trust and the IW Council. Amongst a wide variety of things found were polystyrene, plastic bottles and many segments of fishing net of varying sizes, just some examples of the many hundreds of small items recovered, all potentially harmful to marine life and sea-birds and now safely removed. In addition several large items were recovered including a gas bottle, a 25 lt oil drum and a ship’s rudder!
For details of the IW Green Gym Autumn 2011 programme visit footprint-trust.co.uk/greengym or telephone 866459.
Contact Details:
Mark Russell – Chairman
Notes to Editor:
The Isle of Wight Green Gym is an independent community group providing an opportunity for caring for the environment and at the same time improving your health through various conservation tasks. We are one of around 90 nationwide and are affiliated to the BTCV (British Trust for Conservation Volunteers).
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