CALLING ALL CITIZENS OF DUNIPACE & DENNY! 

PLEASE GET OFF YOUR SOFAS
AND COME HELP US CLEAN UP THE MESS! 


(We promise it'll be fun and we'll even feed you cake!)

Gala Park Community Clean-Up for 26^th April

Carronvale Tenants & Residents Association (CTRA) is sponsoring a Community Clean-Up of old Gala Park (Dunipace) on Saturday 26^th April as the first effort of a new local focus group on litter and environmental issues.

Although the fly-tipped sofa suite above (isn't it lovely?) is not actually in Gala Park, the photo serves to remind everyone that this big Community Clean-Up is just the first of about 5-10 years of work planned.  The fly-tipping was photographed recently on Denovan Road, lovely backroad through farmers' fields in our semi-rural community.  Although it was reported and uplifted by the council, we understand it was quickly replaced by more of the same.  We have some ideas on tackling such areas...but first we are going to start with Gala Park, as it's centrally located in Dunipace/Denny.    

The Talk of the Town!
The event is co-sponsored by Keep Scotland Beautiful, Falkirk Council Litter Strategy Team, Falkirk Environmental Trust (FET), British Trust for Conservation Volunteers (BTCV) and Action Earth.  People throughout Denny and Dunipace are saying this event is "the talk of the town"!  It seems there is a lot of sentiment attached to the old park where the town galas used to be held - and where there was once - long ago - a castle that burned down.  It's a lovely park with a playing field, children's play area, dog-walking paths, river banks, bridge and woodland. 

It just needs a good cleaning, some TLC.

Awards presentations will begin at 10:00 a.m. in the Dunipace Primary Gym, the clean-up will take place from 10:30 - Noon in Gala Park, followed by a party back at the gym until 1:00 p.m.  

COME JOIN IN THE HARD WORK
 AND GOOD FUN!

We will meet in the car park on Stirling Street to get instructions, divide into six groups with Team Leaders, and don our clean-up equipment...(litter pickers, not spears!)

Many Hands...
FET is funding the clean-up. Local schools and youth groups such as Scouts and Brownies will present litter awareness projects. Denny High School students will help as Team Leaders; local businesses and ASDA will donate prizes and refreshments.  Matheson's Bakery is donating a sheet cake with our theme, "We Care About Our Park!" on it.  A professional video will be made of the event by JPS Media, working with children and local musicians on production.
 

Alex Totten, Football Hero Judges Art Contest!
A children’s art poster contest, on the theme “We Care About Our Park!” has the five Denny and Dunipace primary schools involved. Each advertising poster has a center blank space for a child’s original artwork. Scottish Football Hero Alex Totten will be the judge and will present the awards.

Fifteen winners will be selected (three from each school) and those images will be used in a 2009 fund-raising calendar. The overall winning poster will be the cover of the calendar, which will raise money for the schools’ and environmental group’s further green projects. With the cooperation of local businesses, churches, centres, etc. as many posters as possible will be shown throughout the community prior to the event.

A Gallery of Art Posters will be on display at Denny Library and other locations from 29 April through 12 May.

To get involved or display art posters in your shop, please contact CTRA Secretary Michelle McCallum at ctra.dunipace@yahoo.co.uk or 01324-824-843.

OR JUST SHOW UP!

"Ooops!  I found more litter!" sez Shaka.  "It's ok, I can get it..."

NEW LITTER/ENVIRONMENTAL ORGANIZATION FORMING IN DUNIPACE/DENNY

As a result of our community meeting on 24 January 2008 - attended by 30+ very vocal people - we are forming a new organization to focus ONLY on litter and environmental issues for Dunipace & Denny!  Over the next few weeks we are drafting a constitution, then will call another public meeting to adopt it and elect a committee and officers and get rolling!  Our focus will be clean-ups, maintenance, education and enforcement.  Litter, fly-tipping, cigarette litter and dog fouling will be addressed.

Meanwhile, until we are official, the Carronvale Tenants & Residents Association will sponsor the ongoing litter-picking activities in our area.

CARRONVALE NEIGHBOURHOOD CLEAN-UP SET FOR 23 FEBRUARY 11-1:

As part of the on-going clean-ups of this Dunipace area (we get a lot of walk-through traffic and have to constantly patrol the edges of our estate) we are having our 4th clean-up since March 2007.  We hope for a good turn-out as usual - all it takes is about 1.5 hours and we can clean it all up and go on with our weekend!  Contact McCallum at 01324-824-843 or just meet us at the benches near the Red Hoose Pub!

MAJOR MULTI-NEIGHBOURHOOD EVENT PLANNED FOR APRIL:

Our first big event will be the 26th April Gala Park Community Clean-Up, as part of the Keep Scotland Beautiful Spring Clean.  We have a promise of funding for this event, lots of ideas and good energy! 


PLANNING MEETING TO BE HELD 28TH FEBRUARY IN DUNIPACE:

Our first planning meeting for the Gala Park, Dunipace Clean-Up will be held on 28 February at 7:30 pm  at the Heritage Rooms, 13 Milton Row, Dunipace.  For more information contact McCallum at 01324-824-843 or email at ctra.dunipace@yahoo.co.uk.  Or just show up!  We will be working with local youth organizations, all the local schools, neighbourhood associations and anyone who wants to be involved.  We will need volunteers for 26th April to help with registration, handing out placcards and pickers, team leaders, coffee servers, and, of course, people who want to grab a litter picker and fill a sack!  There will be a lot of tasks leading up to the day of the event and we can use all the help we can get.  Especially we are hoping the youth will get involved.  

More on this event will be posted here as we proceed.

AN art poster contest for Denny/Dunipace youth will be put into motion by mid-March as part of this event.



DISTURBING INFORMATION ON SCOTLAND'S LITTER HABITS!!!

KEEP SCOTLAND BEAUTIFUL made the following announcement at its website on 23 January 2008:

"A whopping forty-six percent of people surveyed in Scotland admit that they drop litter despite knowing that it is against the law and they could be fined £50! That is just one of the shocking facts announced by Keep Scotland Beautiful following recent research.

The research findings have been released to coincide with a plea to everyone visiting, living and working in Scotland to have some pride and stop dropping litter – making places look better, reducing the risk to wildlife and increasing community pride.

Programme Manager, Donna Niven said: "Dropping litter is not only completely unacceptable, it is against the law. Last year more than 4,000 fixed penalty notices were issued to people caught littering, but it is still costing Scottish local authorities upwards of £70million a year to clean up.

"Our research highlighted that people felt dropping litter was acceptable because their individual behaviour was of little consequence, especially in areas which were already littered. But, what I’d like people to realise is that if everyone drops even one piece of litter we end up with a huge problem. So I would urge everyone, young and old to play their part", she added."

For more information on all issues about litter, see http://www.keepscotlandbeautiful.org/index.asp

Are you are fed up with litter, fly-tipping, dog-fouling,

garbage in the river, streets, footpaths?

Do you have ANY ideas about how to tackle the problem?

If so, PLEASE come to
a COMMUNITY BRAINSTORMING MEETING!

The LITTER Dilemma

of Dunipace/Denny!

24 January 2008 “7 pm for 7:30”

Heritage Rooms, 13 Milton Row, Dunipace

Falkirk Litter Strategy Team will be there
to help us sort this out!

Input needed on enforcement, involvement of youth, regularly-scheduled area clean-ups, etc.

Action committees will be formed for
an April 2008 Community Clean-Up of Gala Park
(part of Keep Scotland Beautiful),
River Carron clean-ups, etc.

For more information:

CARRONVALE TENANTS & RESIDENTS ASSOCIATION

ctra.dunipace@yahoo.co.uk

 

50 Bags of Debris in 3 Hours

Another litter cleanup was held in our area on 27 October.  This time it was under the auspices of the newly-formed Carronvale Tenants & Residents Association, Dunipace, Scotland.  This was our third cleanup day in 2007.

Fifteen volunteers gathered 50 bags of debris – plus assorted gas tanks, stoves, sheets of metal and plastic, mattresses, etc. - in 3 hours from the footpaths along the River Carron, St. Patrick’s School and Winchester Industrial Estate.  It should be noted that the areas of this particular event are not IN our neighbourhood as much as on the APPROACH INTO our neighbourhood.  Our logic is that, since the clean-ups within our streets have helped a new mental attitude begin...that attitude should start as people are walking along in and out of particular neighbourhoods.  It is an attitude and awareness that needs to grow and spread - the way the litter has!  It also helps us realize we can have pride in our whole community, not just a set of particular streets near our address.   

In fact, we found a kitchen sink in the river!  We have to go back for that, it was not possible to get to it and haul it out this time around.

Monitoring Public Paths
We also did another clean-up of the neighbourhood entrance area at Milton Row on 27 October.  Within the streets and residence areas of Carronvale, the litter problem is at a minimum – mostly from teenagers passing through - but it is the public paths along the edges that need constant attention. And, unfortunately, the entrance to our neighbourhood is one of those public paths.  Our association (CTRA) is attending to that, through daily monitoring by some individuals, continuing clean-up days which will occur seasonally, and council assistance. A committee has formed to plan larger community clean-up events that will hopefully engage several neighbourhoods in 2008, to expand the clean-up mentality into all areas of Denny and Dunipace and work with other groups who are making this a priority. 

The Falkirk Council Litter Team is Great!
The CTRA is very pleased at how pro-active the Falkirk Council Litter Strategy team has been, in helping organize these clean-ups and even attending, themselves, to help fill the bags. At the October clean-up, team members Catherine Wilson and Hania Smith even climbed down into the river in their wellies, dragging a mattress and television out of the water. Discussions have begun regarding long-term plans to beautify the area, including installation of historical markers, tags to identify flora and fauna on the footpaths, and ways to involve the local youth and schools in future campaigns.

A Tesco Bag in Your Pocket!
Mostly we have noticed people are really helping to keep the areas clean after we clean them up, and I often meet dog-walkers who tell me they are helping pick up their Tesco-bags-full when they can.  I love hearing that, I don't ever leave the house without a Tesco bag in my pocket!  Now when I walk my dog and see anglers on the river bank, fishing quietly, I am hoping they notice the lack of debris at their feet.  At least a diminishing of debris, the job never ends.  

I could report on activities by young people passing through our area that are counterproductive to our efforts.  But it's too depressing to focus on that.  So, instead, I'll just say we monitor and clean up after you kids and we hope you have a change of heart!  Better still, we hope you might join our efforts in time.  After all, it is the young who will inherit this mess.  We DO have some young people involved in cleaning up our neighbourhood, and I am very proud of those few!

What's Next?
Our next event will be a large public meeting toward the end of January 2008 to make plans for a major spring clean-up of Gala Park, in which we hope to bring several Denny/Dunipace neighbourhoods together .  We will be looking for ways to involve other community groups - teens, schools, anglers, other neighbourhood associations - so that we can have an event that is both practical, educational and even entertaining.

We always love to hear about other neighbourhood clean-ups.  Please email me and I'll post your news here too!  After all, it's not just our wee neighbourhoods we are trying to clean up.  It's the whole country!

Shaka says:     "THANKS FOR CLEANING UP AND...COULDJA' PLAY FETCH WITH ME AND THIS ROCK NOW PLEASE?"
Contact:  Michelle McCallum at stirlingshadow@yahoo.co.uk and add "Litter" in the subject line.

Second Vale Estate (Dunipace) "What's Next?" Litter CleanUp A Success!

We held our second cleanup on May 19th, despite the rain and cold.  In 1.5 hours 10 of us cleared out the whole neighbourhood!  We worked Milton Row, the river path and all points in between, throughout the Estate.  Interestingly, this time it was 15 sacks of litter compared to 55 sacks just from the path behind our neighbourhood...which makes us think even more it's those passing through who have been spreading most of the litter, plus the children coming home from school with fast food wrappers and soda cans, etc. 

However, we did find a terrible "den" under a very large overgrown set of bushes, that looked like several years' worth of mostly crisp bags, bottles, cans, a place the kids apparently hide out.  We were unable to clean that entirely, due to the low and very tangled and stickery undergrowth around the edges.  But we did the best we could, and will go back to clean in there again with proper gear.  One of our members has devised a long-handled set of clippers to help!

Again, we ask that everyone carry a Tesco's bag in their pocket when walking the area, and pick up what little bits you can.  Every little bit helps!

Our next big cleanup will be in September and, after the summer, no doubt there will be lots to clean!  We are working on getting public liability insurance for that day, as we will be working on the banks of the river.  And as school starts up again, we will be looking for more ways to involve the kids and teens in these events. 

Meanwhile, the path we cleaned up on April 21st is still looking fantastic, the bin at the River Carron bridge is being used, and folks seem pleased and are taking care of our neighbourhood.

I am still amazed when I find gum wrappers.  It's such a small thing to tuck in your pocket, why throw it in the grass?  I suppose compared to giant pieces of plastic in the river, broken bottles underfoot and food wrappers, a wee bit of gum wrapper seems innocent enough.

But that's where it starts. 

Have a great summer, everyone, and we'll have more to report in August as we gear up for the next big event!  Meanwhile, feel free to leave comments or email us at stirlingshadow@yahoo.co.uk.  We stand ready to help others with their cleanup efforts.  Also please contact catherine.wilson@falkirk.gov.uk to help when your neighbourhood is ready to hold its own cleanup!  She is our Angel!

Michelle & Bob McCallum
May 23, 20007

WHAT'S NEXT? May 19th clean up planned for Vale Estate.
Above is posted our current flier which we have circulated to 180 residences and posted in the pubs and shop windows in our area.  Because our first clean up on April 21st was such a sucess (see our previous entry at this blog, with photos and story), the 20 participants asked "What's next?"  In response, we are holding the second clean up.  This time we are tackling the front entrance to Vale Estate (a wee park near The Red Hoose Pub on Stirling and Milton Row), Milton Row back to the river path, and the footpath on our side of the River Carron, and the part of Stirling Road that runs across the front of Vale Estate.  We will also clean up all the streets of Vale Estate and other common green areas.  We might even scoop wind-blown bits from your front garden as we pass, so don't be surprised!

YOU ARE ALL INVITED!
Anyone wanting to be involved, just show up at 9 am on Saturday May 19th outside The Red Hoose, where gloves, pickers, vests, bags and hoops will be provided.  Children with parents are welcome and teens are very welcome.  Even if you can only stay long enough to fill one bag, we will love you!
 
We hope someone picks up the torch to do more big clean ups this summer as we have other commitments then.  We will resume our efforts in August and have a big September clean up planned for the banks of the River Carron alongside Vale Estate and the footpath as it continues beyond our neighbourhood. 

All We Did Was Ask And the Very Next Day...
The council provided us a small doggie bin at the bridge at River Carron and people are using it for doggie and other litter.  The teens have even started leaving their bags of beer cans for us there and helping keep it clean.  Some of us are cleaning bits every day as we walk our dogs, including the field behind Vale Estate.  Hopefully the children will begin to understand this better and keep things nice this summer.

Our heroine and hero!
Catherine Wilson at the Falkirk Litter Strategy is continuing to be our ANGEL!  She is so helpful and supportive!  Chris, who brings out the truck and bins and helps with the safety checks, is my hero for turning up early on a Saturday morning recently just to haul away some overzealous automotive fly-tipper's mess left in our bushes!  Ugh!  Thank you Chris!
 
The Tesco Bag Solution
We realize we will need to hold regular clean ups to keep up the momentum, over time, and we are all prepared to do that.  So far we are VERY encouraged at how clean our area is remaining, generally.  We do pick up a small tesco bag every day, sometimes every other day, as we walk the dog.  That's not too bad at all, compared to how it used to be!

PLEASE ROLL UP A TESCO BAG IN YOUR POCKET!
If all the dog walkers will do what we do...on your way out the door with Pooch, grab a litter picker, gloves and one Tesco bag.  That way you can grab the bits of candy wrappers, beer cans, cigarette packs along the path and drop them in your bin.  Such little bits do help immensely.  And if others see you doing it, it reminds them not to drop their litter.  

We are also taking extra care to carry a bag to clean up our dog's "contribution to nature".  This will become more and more important for us all...once all the big litter is gone, the dog poops become more visible!  And they are a health problem, especially where children are playing.  

Let's Keep Networking! 
We are seeking to join forces and network with others in Denny and Dunipace in their clean up efforts.  Please contact us!  We would LOVE to get the teens involved, too, and angler clubs, etc.  We have lots of cool ideas and we have heard others have some too...let's put all those ideas in one room SOON!

Only the Beginning...
Other big clean ups are planned for the Spring of 2008, including one in Gala Park which would involve all the other neighbourhoods nearby, not just ours.  One of our goals is that, in time for Easter 2008, our path area behind Vale Estate will be suitable for a big Easter Egg Hunt!

If you have any news about clean ups in your neighbourhood in Central Scotland, Falkirk areas, Denny or Dunipace, we will happily post it here and photaes too.  Just send an email to stirlingshadow@yahoo.co.uk so we can help you do that.

IT'S OUR HOME, LET'S KEEP IT CLEAN! 

So...go take a walk on our footpath.  We are proud of it now!

Michelle & Bob McCallum
Dunipace, Scotland