Own Your Streets!

Own Your Streets looks to Manchester's citizens to keep the city tidy…

Monday 24th April is the day where Manchester’s hard-working street cleaners disappear. Vanish. Gone. They are to be replaced (temporarily) by ‘volunteers’, this shadowy group will stalk the streets wearing gowns of blood-red, carrying clip boards and bin bags, and they may even approach you for some *gulp* information…

But before we equip ourselves with military-grade firearms and lock ourselves in the bathroom, these mysterious red-sheathed volunteers don’t wish to harm us, all they want to do is help make our city a cleaner place to live. All street cleansing will stop for the day - to encourage Mancunians to take ownership and responsibility for their litter.

Retail outlets and shops will also be taking part, with staff members and even mannequins wearing Own Your Streets promotional T-Shirts. Packaged products like sandwiches will also be doing their part, with special stickers placed on each item to remind its owner of their disposal responsibilities. The town crier will also be present, and at 5pm there will be photographs taken of the end results. After this there will be a panel of judges who will decide how clean we’ve managed to keep our city.

The Own Your Streets scheme is a part of the 100 Day - Challenge Manchester project, which started at 14th February and will end the 24th May 2006. As a part of the 100 Day Challenge, local communities, young people, parents and carers, schools and businesses as well as many partners and sponsors will cover a range of issues across communities in Manchester.

Last year saw over 8,500 volunteers take part in Challenge Manchester events ranging from community clean-ups to a recycled fashion show. Over 800 tonnes of rubbish was collected, 700 tonnes of which has been recycled and a grand total of 887 untaxed or abandoned vehicles have been removed from Manchester’s streets. Almost 1,500 fixed penalty notices have been issued for street littering across the city.

If you want to help keep Manchester’s streets tidy, or if you would like to become involved in the 100 Day Challenge Manchester programme, visit the website here

Stephen Fairbanks
E-mail me here!