Ashburton Courier: September 26, 2019

Ashburton’s The Courier, Thursday 26 September 2019, Page 27
Tackling litter at sharp end
Mattresses, kitchen appliances, televisions,
car parts, tyres, carpet, furniture,
children’s toys and clothes are
just some of the dumped items
collected by Volunteering Mid &
South Canterbury and the Hotel
Ashburton Volunteer of the Month,
Bev Skates, from Litter Free Ashburton.
Bev, and other volunteers from the
group, regularly clean up the main
entrance to Ashburton, along river
banks and in green spaces around the
town.
She says the Litter Free Ashburton
team take pride in their town, they
want it to be atown that locals take
pride in and visitors and those
passing through can see it’s aclean,
beautiful town where those living
there care about it.
One area they focus on is the
North Park Reserve where they often
find household rubbish and sometimes
car windows.
Bev says it’s disappointing to see
rubbish, often from fast food restaurants,
dropped so close to a
rubbish bin when it could have been
disposed of properly or taken away
by the consumer.
The Litter Free Ashburton role
was started by Bev after she moved to
Ashburton.
She noticed rubbish lying around
town and, not one to sit back and say
someone should do something, she
decided to address the problem.
She wanted to keep the streets and
green spaces of Ashburton litter free
and beautiful.
After talking to Ashburton District
Volunteer of month -Bev Skates
Council’s waste recovery manager
Craig Goodwin and expressing her
concerns, Bev advertised for others
to join her to pick up rubbish.
She got a good response from
others keen to pick up the mantle
and pick up rubbish.
At 1.30pm on the second Thursday
of each month the small group of
around eight volunteers, mostly
retired members of the community,
meet at the East Street chessboard to
find out where they are picking up
rubbish that day.
More volunteers are always welcome
to join them; whether it’s
regularly or just for one day.
Bev, a former teacher, knows
educating people about correct rubbish
disposal and having pride in
yourself and community is akey to
reducing the amount of rubbish
being dumped where it shouldn’t be.
She says recently, as part of Keep
NZ Beautiful, more than 25 volunteers,
including families, turned up
for a Saturday morning clean up
along the main road.
In just ashort space of time they
collected over 260kg of rubbish.
Bev is always on the look out for,
and collecting rubbish when she is
out and about, as she is indefatigable
in her efforts to make adifference in
her community.
The council supplies the gloves,
fluoro vests, rubbish picker­uppers
and ensures after they have finished
everything is disposed of correctly.
It’s thanks to Bev this group of
volunteers exist as the streets and
green spaces wouldn’t be as litter
free as they are.
Organisations and groups are
encouraged to get nominations in for
the Volunteering Mid &South Canterbury
&the Hotel Ashburton Volunteer
of the Month. Nomination forms are
available by contacting Volunteering
Mid &South Canterbury, Community
House, 44 Cass Street Ashburton, ph
3081237 ext 240 or email volmidcant@gmail.com
or from Four Square in
Rakaia.
Advice
bureau
option
discussed
Community House Mid Canterbury
could become home to a
Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) if
momentum continues.
CAB chief executive Kerry
Dalton was a recent visitor to
Ashburton and expressed her
strong support for the establishment
of abranch here.
Safer Ashburton manager
Kevin Clifford said setting up a
CAB here was a work in progress,
but had ahigh likelihood
of succeeding.
It would be apositive service
for the community and although
independently incorporated, it
would be amember of Citizens
Advice Bureaux New Zealand
(CABNZ).
Community House Mid Canterbury
was an obvious location
for the service because of its
central location and the fact that
it already served as an advice
point to some extent.
Discussions had already taken
place about the possibility of
reconfiguring the front counter
and some office space, he said.
Funding would be needed to
set it up and run it and that could
be sourced both nationally and
locally.