So… what is RESCUE Reading?
RESCUE stands for Rivers and Environmental Spaces Clean Up. It is a major spring clean across Reading. Each year volunteers go to work with litter pickers, gloves and rubbish collections on a weekend in March. Reading RESCUE 2009 is on the weekend of 14th & 15th of March.
The Reading RESCUE 2008 newsletter provides a good overview of the event.
The 2008 statistics:
Tonnes of rubbish collected – 31 tonnes total
Number of skips – 10, plus 438 bin bags
Number of groups and sites – 30 groups and 35 sites
Number of volunteers – 535 volunteers (inc 71 young people)
Reading Council co-ordinated the spring-clean in partnership with Groundwork Thames Valley, Connect Reading, Millennium Volunteers and the Environment Agency.
Each year the RESCUE event has been bigger and better than before as more businesses and community groups take up the challenge. In 2008 there were 535 volunteers – nearly 200 more than the previous year.
The practical work on the day was carried out by volunteers from local residents’ groups, businesses, environmental groups and individuals.
Steve Waite, Reading’s Lead Councillor for Environment and Consumer Affairs said:
“RESCUE is now one of the highlights of the environmental year calendar in Reading. People get together, have a great time and see a real change in their neighbourhoods and local open spaces at the end of it.”
