A bumper crowd from GoodGym Stockport came out to clear a sandy area close to the Waterside Hotel - henceforth known as a "beach" - of litter and discarded waste that has accumulated from the river and from passers by or fly-tippers.

Ian and Liam from Venture Out were very happy to have a group to collect as much as possible, providing bags and litter pickers, with the bags supplemented from our own steady supply during the Great British Spring Clean.

Meera, Laura, and Ben made the ~3 km run from Life Leisure Cheadle, to be joined by Hannah by bike and Julie in the Waterside Hotel car park. Once we had located the Venture Out vans, we made our way out to the Mersey shore to get cracking.

Amongst the sand was a whole array of items, including:

• shoes (lots and lots of discarded shoes)
• crisp packets
• cans and bottles
• clothing (coats, fleeces, jackets)
• cones and tyres (too big for the bags but we put them in a single pile anyway)
• trolleys
• beer kegs
• 4 or 5 car registration plates plus other parts of cars such as bumpers

We collected easily 15-20 full refuse sacks that we then had to lug back to the van to drop in their final location next to a public bin to be reported to Keep MCR Tidy for collection by the roaming council collections vans during the working week.

Great way to spend the first Tuesday in the setting sun with the clock change allowing extra light until nearly 8pm! Great to see you all and we'll be back with Venture Out in 3 weeks to get into the water to help clear the area near Burnage Rugby Club.

Stefanie and Ben both joined with Ardwick Climate Action 🌳 for their site clearance and litter pick of the green space (not a park) near Dryden Street.

Along with other volunteers Dan, Gordon, Abigail, Gosia, plus a council member and other members of the community (plus Juno of course), we set about to collect as much discarded waste as possible 🚯

Little did we know how big a task that would be... In amongst the hedges and bushes, a whole host of objects were found, including:

• kettle
• bedding
• condom wrappers
• clothing
• pillows
• vapes
• bottles and cans
• mop
• woven basket
• takeaway containers
• laughing gas canisters

Once the site was looking more sightly, we moved onto St Saviours graveyard. Here we collected yet more bottles and clothing, including coats, socks, and a high visibility jacket, plus lots of empty "packets" and a suitcase 💼

At the end, we must have collected 35-40 full refuse sacks of waste and neatly collected it near a council bin to arrange collection, before moving it en mass to a site mote protected from the wind and possible animal life to raid it.

Was great to get involved and a good 2.5 hr workout on a Saturday.

Sam and Ben met up on a nice spring evening to take an active part in the GB Spring Clean 2025.

After a jog from St Peter's Square via Vimto Park (relatively litter-free with several bins nearby), we came upon the path between Manchester Piccadilly train station and O2 Apollo on the A6. With litter pickers, bag rings, and multiple rolls of GB Spring Clean refuse sacks, we set about clearing the green spaces and footpaths of discarded litter, mostly drinks bottles, cans, takeaway waste, and the odd train/metrolink ticket.

With a gig going on at the Apollo, we had a small passing audience as we tackled a litter hotspot across the road, where we found a lot of plastic drinks containers and even the odd sign from the music/gig venue where litter had accumulated.

We collected 4 full sacks in the ~60 min session, keeping warm with a run in between.

As part of the GB Spring Clean, we helped out Friends of Peel Park with their Spring Clean.

Whilst rain was around, Ben with Keith cleared up the The Meadow just next door to Peel Park. We collected at least 4 bags of rubbish plus a wheel chair and trolley pieces.

Good clear up.

Juno and I spent an hour or so picking up litter in Longsight and Birchfields Park. Collected 2 full sacks mostly of Miami Crispy takeaway waste, drinks bottles and cans, and several dummies.

Update: picked up another couple of bags in Longsight on Sunday morning too

After dropping Juno home, I ran to Fletcher Moss park to give the 1st timers briefing and marshal at Old Bedians rugby club (#5) for event number 240. 416 runners and walkers completed the 5 km course.

Following on from Fletcher Moss parkrun, Ben, armed with gloves and litter pickers, joined the Friends of Didsbury Park for their Spring Clean event as part of the GB Spring Clean.

The park was looking splendid in the spring sunshine with daffodils and blossom in full bloom. With it being such a well kept park, there wasn't much litter (a good thing) with a full bag collected from the hedge facing the road, including a long bed post-sort of thing.

Following that, Louise and I shovelled and moved lots of top soil by wheel barrow to fill in the beds in the bird garden.

After a couple of hours work, I said my goodbyes to Brian and Louise and made my way to see my mum.