Sunderland is actively participating in the Great British Spring Clean, a nationwide initiative aimed at tidying up local environments
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00:00As part of the Great British Spring Clean, organised litter picks are scheduled across
00:04various locations in Sunderland and residents are encouraged to join these efforts to help
00:10make the city cleaner and greener. Today I attended one at Silksworth Ski Slope and Sports
00:15Complex where volunteers from the RSPCA gathered at 10.30am ready to tidy up the area.
00:22So here today we're doing a litter pick for the Great British Spring Clean but with
00:27all RSPCA volunteers and staff here today. We've also got a gentleman with us from
00:32LinkedIn to the Sunderland Council as well helping us too.
00:36So we're thinking of it as well as the community, the wildlife in the area that we really want
00:41to help. Unfortunately the RSPCA gets 10 calls about animals affected by litter every single
00:47day on average and that's the animals that get found. A lot of animals that are affected
00:52by litter just unfortunately don't get found by members of the public that can report it.
00:58So by picking up things like cans, bags, elastic bands, that kind of thing, it just means that
01:03we're creating a nicer environment for the wildlife especially coming into this spring
01:07season where we're going to have baby animals and that kind of thing being born or hatched.
01:12We want to make sure that they're safe. We really want to empower the public to be able
01:15to do their bit with regard to helping animals and also our local community by keeping it
01:20nice and tidy and safe for the animals that live there.
01:24You know just simple things like putting your rubbish in the bin. The RSPCA recently released
01:28a video about the things you can do to make sure your rubbish is safe when it is disposed
01:32of. Things like crushing your cans so that animals can't get their heads stuck in it
01:35or snipping elastic bands on things so that again animals don't get caught. There's lots
01:40of little things. Again disposing of fishing wire. There's always a big one when it comes
01:44to water animals as well. There's loads of things that people can do to help the animals
01:48and their local communities and as I say we really want to empower people to be able
01:52to do that for themselves so that we just create a better world for all animals really.
02:00Councillor Lindsay Leonard, Cabinet Member for Environment, Transport and Net Zero expressed
02:05enthusiasm about the community's involvement, highlighting while most residents take pride
02:10in their surroundings, collective efforts are essential to maintain a clean and safe
02:14city. She acknowledged the council's commitment to enforcing against littering and fly-tipping
02:19while also promoting community-led initiatives.
02:24My name's John Lane and I'm a ranger. Basically I'm funded by the council but work for Youth
02:31Almighty Project and my role is to make the area a better place by litter picking, getting
02:38rid of graffiti, going into schools, planting bulbs with the children, putting planters around
02:44the area and doing litter picks, community litter picks in parks and things like today.
02:53Basically just trying to keep the local area in a better condition than it was.