FED UP WITH RUBBISH?
Do you despair over litter? Are you tired of moaning about the general untidiness of the town? Would you like to be proud of Exmouth? If the answer is yes, then you need to join us.

June 2005
Exmouth Festival Manor Gardens
On the Sunday Norma and Louise and her daughters, Daisy and Nancy, entered the umbrella parade carrying a brightly decorated umbrella representing ‘Keep Exmouth Tidy’ which had been decorated primarily by the girls. The umbrella won the second prize and the group would like to thank Daisy and Nancy for their involvement.

Jean had attended on the Saturday evening and had carried out a PR role with her polo shirt on! Jean reported litter bins were overflowing but at least they were being used.

Save Our Streets
Mary had attended the recent meeting and provided an outline of the aims and objectives of this initiative. Mary reported a number of concerns were raised, particularly regarding any funding to provide any enhancements in the town. Mary is attending a further meeting with the Exmouth Society on this subject and will report back to the group.

Litter Bins
Ian mentioned that at a recent meeting with Street Scene they advised during early evenings, particularly Friday & Saturday during the season, that they were now undertaking the emptying of town centre litter bins and can everybody monitor the situation to see if this helps.

Exmouth Carnival
Following on from the success at the umbrella parade Louise mentioned the Exmouth Carnival which will be held this year on 8th October. Those present agreed that we would like to enter as a group as a fundraiser and publicity opportunity. John kindly agreed to use one of his vehicles to transport us.

Sponsored Walk
Mary asked if the group would be interested in her organising a sponsored walk for the group as a future fund raising venture. All agreed it was a good idea and Mary will put her thinking cap on and come back to us on this.

The Exmouth Tidy Group and volunteers from other local groups where at Phear Park & the cycle path. Exeter Road School pupils where cleaning the area near their School, collecting litter and helping to tidy –up the appearance of our town.

MacDonald’s, who supplied all the necessary equipment, sponsored the event, local cub and scout groups joined us, and East Devon District council is took litter bags away.

Thanks you to all who came along and help make your town a tidier place.
If you would like any further information you can contact either, Norma Southwood on Exmouth 274445, or Louise Hockings on 274349.

Bags of rubbish from our Sunday morning in September 2003
litter collection around the train station

The Exmouth Tidy Group has re-launched, we are an enthusiastic group of people with fresh ideas who care about the amount of litter and mess in the town, and are actively doing something about it, we highly committed to re-cycling, and raising the publics awareness of how important it is to have a clean town, one to be proud of.

• It was agreed to keep the name of the group as ‘Exmouth Tidy Group’. The name is known around the town and people can identify with it. Once the aims and objectives of the group have been confirmed the name can be reviewed to ensure it still reflects the objectives of the group.

• It was agreed that the group should become involved in the national ‘Keep Britain Tidy’ day which is usually held at the beginning of April. This campaign could be used to re-launch the Exmouth Tidy Group. Local youth groups are to be approached to become involved in the campaign by cleaning a designated area.

• Need to involve the local schools in promoting tidiness in the town. Also encourage the children to identify problem areas on their regular walks to and from school.

• Group members to bring their local issues to the meetings (for example if litter bins are missing from their places) and these would be passed on to East Devon District Council (EDDC) via a nominated person. Areas of responsibility can be assigned to the different group members based on their home addresses.

• It was agreed that the group should develop liaison with the Direct Services Organisation (DSO) via a nominated group member.

• Concern was expressed that there was not a dedicated ‘litter hotline’ identified by EDDC in their listed numbers. It was difficult for people to raise issues as they could not always identify the appropriate organisation or department. A list of contact telephone numbers would be provided to the group members to include the following:
• Refuse - DSC
• Litter - DSO
• Paving stones – Devon County Council
• Dog Bins – EDDC

• Concern was expressed about the limited re-cycling within the EDDC area. In particular no plastic re-cycling. It was reported that Mid Devon re-cycle plastics and it was agreed to investigate how they do this. Battery re-cycling is not available in this country despite it being achieved in Europe.

• It was agreed that positive feedback is also beneficial. The use of street cleaners in the colony area after the dustbin collection has seen an improvement in that area.

• The Town Council is looking at the problems around dog bins in the town. The group are asked to contact Pat if there are particular areas where there are either too few or too many bins in situ. When sighting the bins EDDC prefer to place them on a grassy area.

• The group has two representatives on the Sustainability Forum which is a sub group of the Exmouth Town Management Forum. The group is responsible for the town environment and concerns expressed by the group can be raised in this forum.

Tidy Day at Phear Park on the 17th May 2003 had been a great success. Thanks to everyone who turned up and in particular the Cub and School groups. The publicity prior to the event had worked well and afterwards the Journal covered it with a big article and photos.