Make your Local Environment Cleaner and Greener
Cleaner Greener Communities is a partnership project between Keep Wales Tidy, BTCV Cymru and Groundwork in Wales. Between us we work with community groups in the Heads of the Valleys areas of Blaenau Gwent, Merthyr Tydfil and parts of Torfaen, Caerphilly and Rhondda Cynon Taf.
Support and Advice
Community groups can get expert help and advice from Keep Wales Tidy project officers. Project officers offer a wealth of environmental and conservation knowledge together with practical assistance. Examples of help and practical support a project officer provides include:
Financial Support
Community Grants up to £1,000 are available to groups for practical projects. Grants can cover the cost of insurance, tools, equipment and publicity. Some of the groups who have benefited from the community grants are:
The Cornerstone Church Project was granted £740 enabling them to purchase materials and plants for their Community Allotment Project in Aberdare.
Mountain Hare Community Group in Merthyr Tydfil were awarded £566 to purchase tools, protective equipment and a first aid kit. The grant enables the group to tidy and care for a small piece of local land and provide a safe play area for children.
Future Blaenavon in Torfaen were awarded £490 for insurance, litter-pickers, tools, plants and bulbs for a community garden on former waste ground and for litter-picking in surrounding area.
Rassau Rivercare in Blaenau Gwent was awarded £1,030 to buy insurance, tools and safety equipment. The grant will help the group continue their environmental projects.
Training
BTCV Cymru can provide training to community groups helping them to improve practical and organisational skills. There is a wide variety of training on offer to groups or if groups identify a particular need for a type of training then a course may be developed for them.
Examples of training include: Risk Assessment Course providing volunteers with skills they need to ensure that all group activities are safe and any risks are taken into account and minimised before any activity starts. A Brushcutter Course trains volunteers in the safe and effective use of brushcutters and strimmers. Many community groups provide volunteer refreshments and may need training in food hygiene.
Green Spaces Projects
Groundwork in Wales work with the community to transform neglected areas into a community asset. Examples of projects completed so far include:
Prospect Green – The village green in Prospect Green will be a mass of daffodils in the spring. The Rhondda Civic Society and pupils from Treorchy Primary’s Eco Council braved the frost for 2 mornings during early December to plant 10 sacks of Daffodil bulbs with a total weight of 200 kilos! A bench has also been installed for the community to sit and enjoy the daffodils.
Cwmbach Community Woodland - Local volunteers from Cwmbach worked with Groundwork in Wales to put life back into an overgrown woodland area adjacent to Cwmbach infant school. It has been given a new lease of life with deadwood and bramble cleared and a fantastic community woodland created. A canopy was opened up and a circular pathway and seating area was created using the green waste removed from the site. Native bulbs were planted by volunteers to give an explosion of spring colour. The woodland can now be accessed by all members of the community and the seating area can be used as an outdoors classroom.
Cwmtillery Scout Hut - The restoration of the grounds surrounding the Cwmtillery Scout Hut was carried out thanks to help from the local community, volunteers from the Pen-y-Bont Tenants & Residents Association and Cwmtillery Scouts and of course the Cleaner Greener Communities project. Working in partnership they transformed a neglected area of steep banking into a community asset.