Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
The community comes together to collect a huge amount of rubbish
It was a litter-pick like no other seen before, and Gazette columnist Harry Bell was among those who took part
Set at the foot of Vauxhall Avenue is a field bordered by the River Stour and the back of the Vauxhall Industrial Estate. Until Sunday, it was one of most neglected and unloved areas of the city, an eyesore found beyond the shiny garages and car dealerships that front the roadside.
Which is ironic, given that enough metal to build a car was collected during an extraordinary community clean-up on Sunday. There was even an exhaust pipe.
The litter-pick on Vauxhall Field was extraordinary for two reasons. First, there was an extraordinary amount of rubbish to collect, and, secondly, the people who turned up put in an extraordinary effort.
Voluntary community clean-ups are becoming increasingly common in Canterbury as citizens, encouraged by good councillors and community stalwarts, stand up and say they do not want litter on their streets and outside their homes and are willing to do something about it.
Sunday’s pick was organised by the two Labour councillors in Northgate, Jean Butcher and Alan Baldock, who are determined to clean the field up and restore it to its purpose as a place people can use and be proud of.
In less than two hours on Sunday, volunteers collected a mountain of rubbish – much of it absolutely disgusting and much of it having sat there for years.
There was a lawnmower, five gas canisters, a filthy mattress, two wheel-less shopping trolleys, a broken high chair and the usual melee of plastic bags, broken bottles and unidentifiable bits and bobs.
The field has also been used for industrial fly-tipping. There are half-a-dozen dump sites in the undergrowth furthest from the entrance at Vauxhall Avenue and they contain everything from fridges and building waste to car batteries. These will be cleared by Canterbury City Council’s contractor, Serco.
And it was the guys from Serco who took away 30 bags filled by volunteers and the enormous pile of rubbish made up of stuff too big to fit in the orange sacks.
Veterans are saying this pick was the most they had ever collected at a single site.
I was among those who turned out at Vauxhall on a sunny but fresh morning and got stuck in helping Cllr Butcher clear an area between the ball court and the last house in the avenue.
We both quickly filled a bag each and yet, as we surveyed the mud patch, we could always see more trash.
Some of it actually has to be pulled out of the ground, so deeply is it embedded. Those who took part included litterpick regulars such as Sian Pettman from Kingsmead, Prof Rick Norman from St Michael’s and Sue Langdown from St Stephen’s.
Crucially, they were joined by a crew from the Canterbury Sea Cadets, who are based in neighbouring Vauxhall Road, and some of the people living nearby.
While it’s always good that people feel they want to flood into an area and clean it, the real task is to get those who live in a place like Vauxhall to feel pride and a sense of ownership over their open spaces.
After co-ordinating the pick, Cllr Baldock told me: “People joined in from across the generations and made it very clear that it is never acceptable to fly-tip or to even carelessly discard household rubbish.
“Those actions selfishly spoil lives as we can’t enjoy public open spaces in safety. It also spoils our whole environment, the environment we must cherish forever. This Sunday we all made the first step.
“We hope Canterbury City Council will now work alongside the community to actively manage Vauxhall Field, ridding it of fly-tipping and making it the great community space it deserves to be.”
Thanks to Alan and Jean and everyone else who turned up on Sunday, this corner of Canterbury is neglected no more.
Sunday’s litter-pick was an act of love. And the Vauxhall area, like many parts of Canterbury, could always do with a little more.
‘We hope Canterbury City Council will now work alongside the community’