Middlewich Clean Team Is 10 Years Old Photo Album

Youngters Learn With Crocodile Pickers

Clean Team members Hilary Jones and Carol Eccles visited several nurseries in Middlewich on 12th February 2013.

Encouraging young children to help to keep their town tidy and to have pride in their town is an important annual Middlewich Clean Team activity. The children sang a song about the importance of putting litter in a bin and then were given the chance to try litter picking for themselves using junior crocodile litter pickers. A Middlewich Clean Team sticker is awarded for their participation.  Hilary explained, "The idea is to sow the seed that litter does actually belong in the bin and to encourage young ones to do so, hopefully forever".

Photo Courtesy of Middlewich Guardian

Clean Team Finds A Mouthful

Photo Courtesy of Middlewich Guardian

Litterpicking with the Middlewich Clean Team is never boring! Apart from it being a pleasant walk with a purpose and a chance to catch up with friends, or make new ones, you just never know what you might find. On Saturday 9th February the team were in action in Holmes Chapel Road and Brooks Lane when they were astonished to find a set of false teeth during a town tidy-up. “It was so funny,” said Clean team founder Janet Chisholm, “We were holding them up with the litter pickers and falling about with laughter, We’ve found some things over the years like glasses and underwear but never false teeth. I can only assume someone’s been sick after a night out and they fell out.” In a strange twist, the Clean Team found the teeth just months after they found some denture glue. Janet added: “We take seriously keeping our streets tidy but it just shows there’s a humourous side to what we do.” They were in perfect condition but have not been claimed despite newspaper coverage! If the false teeth belong to you then please contact us.

A Blackberry phone was also found on this same litterpick. Vice chairman Stephen Dent said: “I have managed to return it to its very grateful owner who had travelled to Middlewich from Bolton on Friday night and dropped it in the Seabank car park.”

Middlewich Tesco Store Supports the Clean Team

The Tesco Store in Middlewich is yet again proving to be a staunch supporter of the Middlewich Clean Team.

On Monday, 28th January 2013, Store Manager David Moss presented the Team with a cheque for £500. The presentation was attended by Clean Team representatives Janet Chisholm (Chairperson), Stephen Dent (Vice-Chairman), Bernice Walmsley and Darren Ketley.

The money will enable the Clean Team to pay for the plants and bulbs associated with the annual planting of St Michael and All Angel’s Churchyard and the autumn community bulb planting event. Tesco has also agreed to allow the Clean Team to hold displays in the store entrance and to undertake a bag pack on 14th September 2013. MANY THANKS TESCO

Interview: Well deserved royal honour for founder of Middlewich Clean Team

by David Morgan

WHEN Janet Chisholm had the brainwave for Middlewich Clean Team all she wanted to do was stop teenagers dropping litter outside her shop.

A decade on, little did the mother-of-two know that she would inspire hundreds of people and be recognised with a royal honour. Janet, of Brooks Lane, has been named in the New Year Honours List for services to the community and will pick up her British Empire Medal at a ceremony in Chester later this year. The Clean Team’s founder has also been invited to a royal garden party at Buckingham Palace.

Janet, who has been married to Ken for 46 years, found out about the honour in November but was sworn to secrecy. She said: “I couldn’t speak to anybody about it apart from my husband which was difficult because I was so excited. “This is fantastic for the Clean Team as it’s a huge recognition for the group. “Many of our members have been there right from the start. There’s no way I could have achieved all this without them. “I do love Middlewich with a passion and I want the best for us and if that means picking up litter and encouraging other people not to drop litter I will continue to do it.”

The idea for the Clean Team began when Janet became fed up with youngsters throwing sweet wrappers outside Chisholm’s newsagents in Wheelock Street. So she attached a bin to her wall with a poster above it which read: ‘Make Janet happy – use the bin’. Friends and community leaders were inspired by Janet’s stand which led to 5 {ed} people gathering around her dining table to pledge their support for a new group. The army of litter pickers now number more than 200 and the team celebrate their 10th anniversary in March.

Janet, a member of Middlewich Community Pride, added: “In the beginning I was trying to sort out a problem on my doorstep. “Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine I’d be getting a British Empire Medal. “It’s very rewarding and exciting that other people feel the same way as me. “It might not seem very much to just look after the area around your street but multiply that by 200 and it makes a huge difference.”

In 10 years, Janet’s group has also helped set up clean teams in Sandbach and Crewe, has been in talks with community leaders in Winsford and Knutsford and has a meeting in Nantwich this month. Janet said: “One of our dreams was that we would start this and then roll it out across the country. “We want every town and village to take responsibility for their communities.”

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MIDDLEWICH’S community leaders have praised Janet Chisholm for her royal honour. Fiona Bruce MP said: “Janet gives her heart and soul to the Middlewich community at grassroots level. “She is just the kind of person the Honours system should be there for and I extend my warmest congratulations to her on this richly deserved award.“ Deputy mayor Bernice Walmsley, Clean Team committee member, added: “Everyone in the Clean Team is so proud. “In Middlewich we've always known Janet is something special and now the whole country knows. “It's often been said she deserves a medal and now she's got one. We're so pleased.” 

Article reproduced by kind permision of the Middlewich Guardian

New Year Litter Picks Underway

Unfortunately there's no end to the litter that's left around and so the New Year soon saw more litter picks underway. On this occasion we started at the Turnpike and collected all this rubbish in just one hour. The help of two new members Graham and Kate Warner really made a difference to the workload.

Middlewich Clean Team Become Media Stars Again

Photo by kind permission of the Middlewich Guardian. 

The Middlewich Clean Team is to play a starring role in a new ITV1 documentary to be televised in the spring. On Saturday, 10th November, 35 members of the Team turned out on a litter pick and were filmed by Media Company Wall to Wall for a new primetime programme provisionally called “Get Up and Give”

Programme researcher Rachel Ozers said, ‘The idea is to follow certain individuals and showcase interesting projects, big fundraisers, local community projects and meaningful charitable work, in the hope of encouraging more people to do the same sort of thing wherever they are in the UK. The focus is inspirational individuals – whether they are volunteers, fundraisers, or even staff members – who dedicate their lives to making other people’s better. We were looking at individuals and organisations across the country who throw their hearts and souls into going the extra mile to help people in their communities and Janet Chisholm and the Middlewich Clean Team were exactly the sort of example we were looking for.’

Filming our Chairperson, Janet Chisholm, at home and around town kept her busy all day. In the afternoon we were filmed on a regular litter pick and then some of the Committee were interviewed individually. The litter pick resulted in 16 full bags of litter and the town was left sparkling for the Remembrance Day Parade and Service which took place the following day.

This follows on from this year‘s features in the Daily Mail, Granada Reports and on local radio. The Home Office and the Cabinet Office consider our group to be a National role model for a community organisation. As a consequence we spend quite a lot of time advising other communities up and down the Country on how to set up a clean team

A press release for this event is available here.