This week for our group run we ran up the hill through High Town to our task on Hitchin road where community clean-up coordinator Kevin from ABCD Luton and some local residents had already got started.

A couple of road-side areas were overgrown with shrubs and weeds and needed cutting back and tidying up. On arrival our team were tooled up with shears, saws, loppers and brushes and set to cutting back and clearing up.

With our large team we managed to clean up a huge stretch of road and filled an amazing five big bags of cuttings which needed dragging up the hill to the point that the council was booked to collect from.

Before retreating back down the hill we took a few minutes to do a few rounds of walking lunges, crunches and squats in the park to round off an energetic evening.

This week we had two tasks on offer again as we continue to make the most of the good summer weather.

The walking group headed off to meet new task owner Rajab from the Safer Luton Partnership, supported by Kevin from ABCD luton who provided tools. The task was to clean up the communal garden at a sheltered housing block so that the residents can regain control and start looking after the place themselves and enjoy growing nice plants instead of weeds.

Meanwhile a combined running and biking team headed out to the distant Bradley Road allotment where previous clear ups have brought this allotment back into a tidy state nearly ready for new allotment tenants. Our task this time was to clean up the entrance area and the access road of the litter and fly-tipped bundles of tree branches to make the approach more attractive. bollards will be installed on the track to prevent.

When both tasks were complete each team headed back into town under the glow of a sunset rainbow 🌈 to complete the evening.

8 of Goodgym Luton's finest made their way to support the Friends of Bramingham Park and abcd-in-luton as they embarked on a litter pick, covering a vast area in Bramingham. After the usual litterpick briefing, that we've heard so many times, but is always so important. We all headed out to see how much litter we could find dotted around this local greenspace. The walk took a few of us into Bramingham wood, which is a lovely extension to the park but also a cheeky hiding place for all sorts of litter treats. I'd say with the other participants there must have been easily 20 bags of rubbish collected. Well done everyone, great effort this morning

This weeks group run saw the latest effort to Keep Britain Tidy by doing our bit to Keep Luton Tidy for the Great British Spring Clean.

Most importantly it was Gail's 50th task! Gail has been on the team since before GoodGym Luton started so we're fairly sure she's done more than 50! Definitely well deserving of a shiny new black shirt!

We took the long road up to Farley Hill, rising up out of town to be treated with a panoramic view of the twinkling lights. Arriving at the Farley Hill Community Centre we met Martin with The litter pickers and set work collecting litter from around the community centre, the shops and the playground here. Four bags later we set off again on the return journey back down the hill into town.

For the final Group Run task of 2023 we were in Manor Road Park, where the river Lea flows out from the town centre. The banks of this section of recently restored riverbank had become strewn with plastic litter that had washed up on the sides so we set to work with our litter pickers tidying it all up before it got washed further downstream.

Also in the river was the remains of one of the park's bins, unhelpfully smashed and thrown in but skillfully retrieved by Martin with a big long rod and a hook on the end.

Some trolleys that had also been dumped in the river has unfortunately been washed along and out of the park and we couldn't reach them, annoying!

But we did manage to retrieve an enormous drainage tube and roll that up to the roadside for collection along with 7 bags of rubbish, the smashed bin a bucket and some other assorted junk.

Today we were out in force again to support ABCD and Luton Council in a clear up of Bury Park in preparation for the first home game for Luton Town Football Club this season. And while the team were expecting a fair amount of litter, none of us had been prepared for the vast numbers of cigarette butts littering the pavements and roadside. They really are a pain in the butt to retrieve with a litter picker, but we did our best to clean up our section on Dunstable Road. Amir and Abim got really efficient with the broom and dustpan, while Assine , Ashkan and Abdulkarim had got retrieving all sorts of debris from the grass down to a fine art. It was great to have additional help from Bakari, who assured us that he wasn't part of GoodGym, but it's only a matter of time before we get him as out next recruit, with Abim's powers of persuasion.