Green Towns Shanklin
What’s it all about?
The idea behind Green Towns is to encourage people within the community to take positive action so that real environmental improvements can be achieved. The Shanklin branch has been active for just over a year and is supported by the Town Council and Natural Enterprise.
We have a small Steering Group of local residents, including representatives from the Town Council, the Voluntary Youth and Community Club and the Community Police. Regular meetings enable us to generate ideas which volunteers can then help to carry out.
Last year we organised many ‘quick response’ litter picks in various parts of the town, involving volunteers both young and old and we keep the theatre car park tidy. We have officially adopted Appley Beach, where we do quarterly beach cleans, sending the survey results to the Marine Conservation Society.
We distributed free water and energy-saving gadgets to help people consume less and save money and we obtained fifty small trees to give away to local residents and organisations.
We organised a visit to Ventnor Botanic Gardens for a session on How to Make Really Good Compost, with a free tea as well! Links with local schools and the Beavers were established and we plan to continue these.
In April we negotiated with Island Line to give the station garden a makeover and we now have regular gardening sessions and have added a boat and two lobster pots to enhance the appearance of the station. We’d be happy to maintain other planted areas such as the library garden but for this to happen we need plenty more volunteers.
One of our long-term aims is to improve the cycle track so that more people can use it year-round and we’re investigating grant funding in this respect. A Green Streets Scheme is something we hope to start this year, whereby residents volunteer to spend a few minutes each week to keep their street litter-free, using equipment we’d provide. We’re keen to establish links with local businesses too.
What can you do to help?
Become one of our team of volunteers! It needn’t take much of your time but it will be rewarding and you’ll be helping to make Shanklin a better place in which to live, work or spend holidays.
Contact Us
Lesley on: 01983 868309 or e-mail: johnandlesley1@talktalk.net
Bridget on: 07792 174941
