Annual Community Flower Planting

Photo:Maxine Wrench.

On the Tuesday 29th May 2012, Brownies, Cubs and other volunteers met up at St. Michaels Church for the Middlewich Clean Team Annual Community Planting. 

We usually plant bizzy lizzies but last year’s plants succumbed to disease so this year begonias and lobelia have been used instead. As this is the Queen’s Silver Jubilee year and the public holidays to celebrate it were only a few days away it was not hard to choose the colours for the plants – red, white and blue of course. Everyone worked hard and the job was soon finished resulting in a fine floral display. Well done and thanks to all involved.

Janet Nominated For Cheshire Woman Of The Year Award

Our Founder & Chairperson, Janet Chisholm, was secretly nominated for the Cheshire Woman Of The Year Award 2012 and the awards the ceremony recently took place in the Long Room at Eaton Hall. Janet set up the Middlewich Clean Team in 2003 and the accolade recognises her service to the community.

The occasion has been reported in the Middlewich Guardian and the article appears below
(alternatively click here to read the article full size):

Middlewich Clean Team in the Daily Mail and Granada Reports

Photographs courtesy of the Daily Mail.

We had visits from the Daily Mail on Thursday 3rd May to find out about our work and on Saturday 5th May to join us on a litter pick. The resulting feature 'The town that went to war on litter' appeared in the Daily Mail the following week. Granada Reports followed on with a visit too and that was broadcast on Wednesday 9th May.

Both articles portrayed the work of the Middlewich Clean Team in respect of dealing with litter and we are pleased and excited to have been featured by them. You can learn about the other things we do by browsing through this website. 

The Daily Mail article appeared in the Mail Online and appears below (alternatively click here to read the article full size):

Highlighting Dog Fouling

Centre photo courtesy of the Middlewich Guardian.

On 30th March 2012 Middlewich Clean Team joined forces with Streetscape, British Waterways & the Community Dog Wardens to leave a fluorescent purple message for irresponsible dog owners. The spray paint is chalk based and will eventually wash away but in the mean time will serve to remind pet owners of the awful mess they leave behind. The campaign at The Moorings found eight cases of dog dirt alongside the childrens play area and all where duly highlighted with the message "Clean It Up". 

The campaign was reported in the Middlewich Guardian Newspaper and you can read the online version of it here:

Last Autumn's Bulbs Bloom

Last autumn we planted daffodil and crocus bulbs on Holmes Chapel Road near to the Salt Cellar pub. We planted two rows of bulbs and now they are in full bloom in the spring sunshine.

Sea Cadet Corps Work With Middlewich Clean Team

The Middlewich Clean Team’s numbers at their litter pick on Saturday 18th February were boosted when they were joined by a team of Sea Cadets and their Leaders from TS Portland which is based in Whitegate. A total of 23 people braved the cold weather and litter picked all of the canals in the town, nearby roads and open spaces filling 25 sacks of rubbish. Clean Team Vice-Chairman, Stephen Dent said “I was approached by the Chair of the Sea Cadets who asked if the Cadets could join our litter pick as they were encouraged to support and participate in local community events as part of their training and development. Coupled with a really good turnout from our own members, the valuable help from the cadets meant that we were able to split into several groups to cover a large area of the town.” Sea Cadets Chair, Darren Green said “‘The Sea Cadets rely on the goodwill of the local community for support and fundraising and so it is always good to help the community wherever we can”.

Nursery Visits 2012

Clean Team volunteers Hilary Jones and Carol Eccles at Rainbow Day Nursery in Brooks Lane,
with Emily Smith, three, Marco Azakli, four, Millie Lane, four and Matthew Hitchen, four.
Photo: Middlewich Guardian

Middlewich Clean Team has been helping to nurture the responsible citizens of tomorrow. Carol Eccles and Hilary Jones visited the town's nurseries to speak to youngsters about having pride in where they live and keeping the streets litter-free.

Hilary said, "We talk to the children about the importance of putting litter in the bin and the role of Middlewich Clean Team. We let them have a go with our junior crocodile litter pickers placing litter into our bin. Then we sing our song, which they all love to do, before they are awarded a MCT sticker. The idea is to sow the seed that litter does actually belong in the bin and to encourage using it." 

Article reproduced by kind permission of the Middlewich Guardian