A team from Clear Future Financial Planners brought the Great British Spring Clean to Grove Lane in Westend, near Stonehouse, turning their regular lunchtime walk into an opportunity to clean up the local area.
They collected six bags of rubbish during this annual nationwide event organised by the charity Keep Britain Tidy. It encourages everyone across the UK to make their streets, parks, and green spaces cleaner, more attractive places to live whilst helping to protect wildlife and the environment.
Clear Future staff – Simon Evans, Michelle Morgan, Serena Davis, and Lucy Hemmings – usually have a stroll at lunchtime from their office at Westend Office Suite along Grove Lane to stretch their legs and take a break from screen time. Over the past few months, however, they’ve become increasingly aware of the rubbish piling up along the verges, hedgerows, and roadside.
“Once we started noticing it, it was hard to ignore,” said Simon Evans, director of the company. “The lane borders lovely countryside, and we hear plenty of birdlife around us and no doubt there’s other wildlife living there which could be harmed by the litter.”
A combination of the Great British Spring Clean and Stroud District Council’s new initiative loaning litter-picking equipment to community groups gave the staff the perfect opportunity to do something proactive. Over the course of an hour, the group walked up and down the lane, collecting any litter they could find. Initially, they thought they’d gather around three bags’ worth of rubbish, so they were surprised – and a bit saddened – to end up with six full bin bags.
“We’re very pleased to have made a difference to the area,” said Simon, “but it’s a shame to see just how much rubbish had built up. Some of it is likely to have blown from bins or lorries, but some is probably dropped by passers-by. We hope that now the lane looks cleaner, and it would be nice to think people will be encouraged to keep it that way.”
Clear Future Financial Planners believes it’s important for companies to help their local communities and environment. It is the first financial planning company in Gloucestershire to be awarded B Corporation status – an international certification granted to companies that meet rigorous standards for ethical and sustainable business practices, reporting and transparency.
The broader message behind the Great British Spring Clean is about how litter negatively effects where we live. According to recent research for Keep Britain Tidy, over 31 million people in the UK say that cleaner streets would help them love where they live more. Litter isn’t just unsightly – it can remain in the environment for decades. A single plastic bottle can take up to 450 years to decompose and it can block drainage systems, contribute to flooding, and pollute waterways. It also is a threat to wildlife: in the last four years, the RSPCA has received more than 13,000 reports of animals injured or entangled in rubbish.
The Clear Future team hopes their efforts will have a lasting impact. They plan to revisit Grove Lane in six months’ time for another litter pick, helping to keep the area attractive and protect wildlife.
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