Businesses and organisations from Truro and Newham, along with local residents, came together last week to help spruce up the city’s streets as part of a three-day clean up.
The fifth Truro City Clean Up event, organised by Truro BID, took place between Thursday, March 16 and Saturday, March 18.
Truro BID and Newham BID, along with a number of businesses, organisations, and community groups all joined forces to clean, tidy and litter pick.
Due to the very rainy weather on Thursday morning, City Clean Up started slightly later than planned on Thursday afternoon. Unfortunately, due to the rain, two litter picks involving volunteers from Savills, RCM, Tesco, Nationwide, Truro Lions, Rotary Club of Truro Boscawen and the Leats Learning Disability Centre were unable to take place.
However, volunteers from Truro Together, Rusty’s Barbers, The Alverton Hotel, Kenwyn Nursing Home (Barchester), LiveWest, HSBC, Reed in Partnership, St Petrocs and Cornwall Council’s Parking Enforcement Team litter picked and removed cable ties on Thursday afternoon and Friday from Truro city centre. Cllr Lindsay Southcombe braved the rain to take part in a cable tie cutting and sticker removal session.
Truro BID manager Alun Jones said: “We’re delighted that in spite of the weather particularly at the start of the event so many Truro businesses were able to take part. Thanks to everyone involved especially when the weather wasn’t very inviting!”
On Friday, staff from businesses and organisations across Newham & The Port of Truro volunteered their time to help clean up the riverside business district. Business and organisations from Newham that took part included Savills, St Petrocs, Cher Varya, Biffa, Cornish Mutual and MJ Medical. The City of Truro Sea and Royal Marine Cadets, local volunteer community leader Paul Caruana and Sian Knights from Truro BID took part in Saturday’s litter pick, where the clean-up locations included Garras Wharf.
Mel Richardson, BID manager for Newham, said: "It was great to be able to work with Truro BID for another successful litter pick event that has shown how working together really can make a difference to the city. We're very grateful to the volunteers who live and work here who came out to do what they could. Not only has it made the city look and feel nicer, but we hope it has inspired other people to take a pride their local area."
Cllr and Mayor Steven Webb and Cllr Loic Rich attended the Malpas litter on Saturday. Cllr Mark Roby also come along to represent Truro City Council and Stephens Scown.
The community groups that helped to spruce up Truro were Malpas Road Community Centre, Trelander, Penn an Dre Residents Association, Hendra Skatepark Group, Kenwyn Community Association, Friends of Daubuz Moor and Truro Rotary Evolution Club.
Damien Richards, community development officer at Truro City Council said: “Community litter picks are more than keeping an area clean, it’s a fun way to bring the community together. We often have people take part that have never met before with a broad age range from the very young to the much older. Our residents take a great pride in where there they live and want to keep it clean. It’s great to work with partners on this project once again.”
Local volunteer community leader Paul Caruana added: “Together we can make a difference as shown by three days of doing City Clean Up!”
Despite two litter picks being cancelled a total of 80 bags of rubbish were collected during the City Clean Up event.
Truro BID, which also helps to improve the city’s environment by funding and installing the city centre’s bunting and part funding the floral hanging baskets each summer with Truro City Council, is planning another City Clean Up for next spring 2024.
