Community Spring Clean this May in Swindon town centre

As part of its ‘Clean and Well-Maintained’ business focus for the town centre, inSwindon BID, in partnership with Swindon Borough Council, are promoting a clean and tidy town centre through a new ‘Keep it Clean’ campaign.

The cleansing of Swindon town centre is maintained daily by Swindon Borough Council, with an additional service provided by inSwindon BID’s Caretaker, funded by town centre businesses.

The ‘Keep it Clean’ campaign is an ongoing initiative with multiple projects throughout the year with an aim to achieve long term sustainable reduction in litter in the town centre. It includes two community clean-up events, to which, Swindon town centre businesses, visitors, residents and community groups are encouraged to come together to change behaviours, do good and raise civic pride in our town centre.

Hosted by inSwindon and supported by the BID’s Clean and Well-Maintained working group - including representatives from The Brunel shopping centre, McDonalds, Metro Bank, Artsite and Swindon Borough Council - the community events will run in May* and September. The bi-annual events will include litter picking, washing street furniture, graffiti removal, housekeeping of planters and a general car park tidy up.

The ‘Keep it Clean’ campaign is supported by further annual projects provided by inSwindon BID, such as hanging baskets, vacant unit window dressing reviews, chewing gum removal and the role of the Caretaker to help continually uplift and improve the town centre.

Di Powell, Chief Executive of inSwindon said: “We all want Swindon town centre to be as welcoming as possible and we all have a role to play – as individuals and businesses. Yet we face a constant battle to keep our streets clean, and it’s a battle we cannot win without help from the public and town centre businesses. That’s why we’ve launched this campaign – people want to feel proud of where they live, work, shop.

“In 2017 we installed 64 new bins throughout the town centre, and we want to encourage everyone to think twice before throwing litter on the ground, and to take action if they see litter. Our caretaker can easily pick up five bags of litter per day, and a team from Wilko’s recently joined the inSwindon Street Team on its own town centre clean-up and collected 18 bags of litter and even a discarded Christmas tree in just one single afternoon. It was fantastic to see the team out and about, taking pride in the town centre they work in. And now, by bringing the community together, we’re hoping it will remind us all to keep our town centre clean.”

Councillor Dale Heenan, Swindon Borough Council’s Cabinet Member for the Town Centre, said: “Keeping our town centre safe and clean is a priority for the Council, and inSwindon's Keep it Clean campaign is another way of changing perceptions and improving the experience of those who want to visit our town.

“Many volunteers, like myself, took part in the Great British Clean up last month in our suburbs and villages. inSwindon working with local businesses is a natural extension for our town centre so they have my complete support. The Council will also be investigating the best way to remove all chewing gum marks from town centre pavements.”

*The ‘Keep it Clean’ May town centre spring clean takes place from Monday 20th to Friday 24th May 2019, where together businesses, visitors and residents can be educated on how they can contribute to ensuring and maintaining a clean town centre.

• Monday 8.30am – 10.30am, meet at McDonalds
• Tuesday 8.30am – 10.30am, meet at McDonalds
• Wednesday 11.30am – 1.30pm, meet at McDonalds
• Thursday 2.30pm – 4.30pm, meet at McDonalds
• Friday 9.30am – 11.30am, meet at Theatre Square

They’d love for as many people to join us over the week, show real community support and help to raise the profile of a clean town centre. Want to get involved? Send an e-mail to [email protected] or call Rachael on 01793 485523.