Welcome to the summer edition of the Keep Wales Tidy newsletter. With the days getting longer and (hopefully) warmer and brighter, now is an even more important time to look after Wales and keep it looking beautiful.
Many of you will be familiar with the work carried out by Keep Wales Tidy. We care about Wales and the people who live here and we want everyone to do the same. Our work with communities and schools helps you take positive action to improve the quality of your local environment. We encourage people to take responsibility for their actions by thinking about the negative impact litter and other activities can have on an area and the people who live there. You may have seen me highlighting this priority in the recent edition of BBC Wales’s Week In Week Out.
Over the past three years our Tidy Towns initiative has recruited thousands of volunteers from across Wales who have taken part in clean-ups and litter picks and turned neglected green spaces into allotments and valuable community assets, as well as improving wildlife habitats. Our Eco-Schools programme teaches children to be environmentally responsible and 94% of Welsh schools are registered.
Although it can be difficult to get through to everyone, we endeavour to change people’s attitudes and their habits so that everyone cares for and can enjoy our beautiful country. Our I Will for Wales campaign is going from strength to strength, with many people (and celebrities) promising to take positive action to look after their local area, making it somewhere where you are proud to live. We’ve also had some great support from Welsh organisations, such as Welsh Water and Countryside Council for Wales to name only two. If you haven’t already made a pledge, please do so: small actions can have a big impact.
I am delighted that Keep Wales Tidy has once again been recognised as one of the most valued employers in the UK. This year we have been placed at number 34 on The Sunday Times Best Places to Work in the Public and Charity Sectors I am so pleased that our staff team enjoy their work and feel so passionately about what we are aiming to achieve.
None of this would be possible without the commitment and support of all our volunteers, so a massive thank you to all 33,742 of you. I hope that you can all enjoy and appreciate your surroundings this summer. With lots of events planned we look forward to working with you out in the sun!
Lesley Jones
Chief Executive, Keep Wales Tidy