In praise of clean up campaign

If it’s grim reading you’re looking for, there’s no shortage of it around at the moment.

All the more reason then to focus on some good taking place in the city.

And what a pleasure it is to be able to paint the youth of our city in such a great light today. Particularly as they’ve been painting the city to brighten up your life!

Students from Sunderland College downed their pens and picked up paintbrushes, sweeps and bin bags as part of a city-wide clean up campaign. And it was no half-hearted affair.

An estimated 3,000 students are taking part in the campaign to make real difference in their city.

Shop fronts received a lick of paint, mucky streets were given a good going over while bin bags were filled with rubbish picked up throughout the community.

The scheme is being backed by Sunderland City Council and the Sunderland BID group with Greggs also lending support by providing food to keep the students going.

There has been criticism from some quarters with people asking why the council is not doing more to ensure our community is clean and tidy.

While the council does play a significant role in keeping the city tidy, it’s up to the community as a whole to look after its own environment. If we took more care in disposing of rubbish, perhaps certain parts of the city wouldn’t be in the state they’re in.

As it is, we’d rather concentrate on the fantastic effort put in by the students.

They’ll be up and about over the next two days, so give them all the support you can.

Forget grim reading: this positive story should have you grinning from ear to ear.