Community clean-ups

On this page:

Next clean-up
Cleaning up North Kelvin – our clean-ups: where, when and what happens on the day
Organising your own clean-up – you can borrow equipment from us
Photos of past clean-ups

Next clean-up

Check our calendar – details of the next clean-up will be posted there when available.

If you have any suggestions for somewhere in the area that needs tidied up, please get in touch!

Cleaning up North Kelvin

At regular intervals, the community council arranges clean-ups in various parts of North Kelvin so that local residents can contribute to the tidiness of the area, and to promote a spirit of neighbourly cooperation.

As well as cleaning up litter and tidying up vegetation, we help with clearing up autumn leaves to make pavements safer for everyone.

Mainly our clean-ups are focused on the various service lanes within the area, all of which are unadopted by the City Council and are the responsibility of the owners of the properties in the blocks which the lanes serve. These lanes are, in many cases, overgrown with self-seeded vegetation, which, combined with deteriorating surfaces can lead to hazards for Council Cleansing teams and their vehicles. Also, sadly, lanes are often subjected to flytipping.

By tidying the lanes we are fulfilling our responsibilities as residents. By working as a group we are assisting fellow residents in their duties, and, by visiting all lanes over a period, we enhance the entire area and help create a community which undertakes things in common.

Find out more about North Kelvin lanes on our back lanes page
Find out more about community well-being.

Where and when

We encourage residents to let us know if there is a particular lane or street that needs cleaning up. We usually choose either a Saturday or Sunday morning a few weeks in advance.

The dates, times and venues of the clean-ups are published on this website, on the community noticeboards on Belmont St and Queen Margaret Drive, and on our Facebook and Twitter pages.

Look out for our banner, too!

On the day

We meet up at the appointed time and place (usually 10.30 on a weekend morning). We hope to have a good turnout of residents, young and not so young, as you can see from the pictures below: many hands make light work and the more the merrier too! Members of the community council always join in, as do our city councillors if they can.

One of the community council team will outline what work we are going to do and how to do it safely. We provide litter-pickers, binbags and various equipment (barrows, brushes, garden tools) but residents are free to bring their own – sturdy gloves especially.

We usually spend a couple of hours on the clean-up, but no one is obliged to stay for the full time. Whatever help you can offer is very welcome.

Refreshments are provided! Halfway through the clean-up we stop for a cup of tea or coffee and a biscuit or 3. This is a nice opportunity to have a chat with your neighbours – maybe people you know by sight but haven’t spoken to before.

At the end of the clean-up we arrange for the Cleansing Dept to remove the bags of rubbish we have stacked up.

We encourage as many people as possible to get involved on the day and hope that participants will continue to donate some time to looking after their patch.

Please note: We will work together as safely as we can, but participation in our clean-ups is at your own risk.

Organising your own clean-up

If you would like to organise your own street clean-up, you can borrow brushes, shovels and gardening equipment from us.

Exercise, fresh air and caring for your community all in one! What’s not to like?

Neighbourhood Improvement Volunteers (NIVs)

If you would like to register as a volunteer, or NIV, go to the City Council NIV page where this more information about how to get started and a registration form to download.