The Parks Trust has a small but dedicated team of Cleansing Operatives who’re are always busy keeping the city’s parks clean and tidy.
On a day-to-day basis the team undertake all sorts of works, from removing litter and refuse to clearing post-flood debris, cleaning graffiti,repairing and repainting furniture, leaf-blowing, or even dredging weed from lakes.
They cover a lot of ground, and walk more than 20,000 steps on an average day.
Watch their work in action in this newCleansing Team video from The Parks Trust.
The charity caring for the city’s beautiful green spaces removed around 100 tonnes of rubbish from Milton Keynes’ parks last year. That’s more than 11,000 bags of refuse from bins, litter picking activities, and fly-tipped waste illegally dumped on parkland.
Most of the litter was food and beverage related; glass bottles, plastic bottles and tops, tin cans, and paper/cardboard (from convenience and fast-food packaging). All of which damages the landscape and can be hazardous for wildlife as well as park users.
In autumn last year, following unprecedented flooding in Ashland, the team dived in to clean up. They donned their waders to dredge - by hand - one of the urban ponds and spent several days removing weed by the truckload. Amongst the weeds were a few surprises, including a child’s three-wheeled scooter. But the result? A healthy pond, and a bonus for the Trust’s sustainable practices as the weeds were repurposed as tree mulch at Middleton Wood Meadow.
Kelvin Brookbank, Cleansing and Play Area Manager at The Parks Trust says “Our cleansing crew are outdoors maintaining the parks whatever the weather, and even on the wettest or coldest days they approach every task - even the nasty ones - with total commitment and pride in their work. We cover a lot of ground from one day to the next and have discovered all sorts of lost or abandoned things over the years.”
The cost of keeping the city’s parks clean and tidy has risen to around half-a-million pounds annually. Thankfully, the Trust has great support from volunteers and community groups who also help with keeping the MK’s network of parks clean and tidy.
Whilst there are strategically located bins in some parks, visitors are reminded not to leave litter next to bins that are full as this can harm local wildlife and the environment. To install and maintain lots more bins would be costly and detract from funds better spent improving the parks for the benefit of all. Therefore, The Parks Trust asks visitors to please take their litter home.
To find out more about how the charity caring for MK’s parks deals with litter and cleansing, visit theparkstrust.com/litter
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