Keep Us Green and Clean

A WEEK of environmental action is being hosted by the East Neighbourhood Office from 27 April to encourage residents and businesses to help make the east of the city even cleaner and greener.

This Environmental Week of Action is a new initiative as part of the East Action Plan.

The neighbourhood office will link with schools, community groups, friends of park groups and local businesses to clean up targeted areas of the neighbourhood.

The East Neighbourhood may have scored highly in the latest CIMS (Cleanliness Index Monitoring Survey) – 91 per cent of the streets in the east were rated as clean – but there is still work to be done.

“The CIMS scores are good but we are not complacent and we need to carry out on going work to keep it up,” said James Hunter, local environment manager.

“Already the Council and the community play an active role, but we want to make a joint effort to raise issues of fly-tipping and littering, and working towards a greener and cleaner neighbourhood.”

Two more Environmental Wardens have been recruited for the East Neighbourhood for more presence on the street.

Community concierges are also playing a part in keeping the community tidier by tackling graffiti hotspots and organising community clean-ups.

The Council is offering grants under the Edinburgh Waste Action grant programme.

Small grants of £50-£200 and larger grants of £500-£2,500 are awarded to community groups, schools and residents for projects that will encourage the wider community to reduce, reuse and recycle their waste.

Visit www.edinburgh.gov.uk to download the Waste Action Grant Programme Toolkit.

Need to know

To find out more about the Environmental Week of Action, contact the East Neighbourhood Office at 86 Niddrie Mains Drive, EH16 4DT or e-mail eastteam@edinburgh.gov.uk