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Somerton clear-up yields 200 tonnes of rubbish

5:40pm Thursday 2nd July 2009


MORE than 200 tonnes of rubbish were collected in 31 skips from a Newport estate after the city's largest ever community clear-up.

Ten vacuum cleaners and 24 televisions were among the junked items as well as the following:

  • two tumble dryers
  • two microwaves
  • two kettles
  • eight lawn mowers
  • eight video recorders
  • a foot spa
  • eight hi-fi units
  • ten strimmers
  • about 30 tyres
  • ten car batteries
  • and a bike.

Residents joined staff from the council, Newport City Homes, Melin Homes, the police, fire and probation services and the Holiday Inn.

A major "clear the grime, prevent the crime" operation was organised by the Safer Newport Partnership.

Cllr David Fouweather, cabinet member for the environment, thanked everyone for their hard work over the two days.

"I hope this is something we can see repeated across Newport and we can build on the positive impact this event has had on the local community."

Gillian Handley, neighbourhood crime and justice co-ordinator, described it as an excellent initiative which galvanised agencies and residents working together to reduce crime and grime in Somerton.


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Your Say YourGwent

Hevsym, Newport says...
6:39pm Thu 2 Jul 09

I live on libeneth road and I didn't see a skip! I saw virtually no activity apart from a couple of people with high vis waistcoats on having a sly fag. I didn't see anything near where I live so it must have been just the somerton estate that was involved. We had a card put through our door telling us that the police would be involved but we only saw the normal amount of coppers

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bert, newport says...
10:04pm Thu 2 Jul 09

What about Ringland

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lliswerryguy, newport says...
6:50am Fri 3 Jul 09

What about Libeneth road theres a couple of tons of rubbish down the bottom thats STILL there or is that a no go area for the council due to drug dealing and remoteness of it.

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Dai37, newport says...
9:12am Fri 3 Jul 09

why don't you do somethin practical then? rather than just sit around criticisin. spot and report the culprits, clean the place up, set an example! this is a community isue, if you are part of it do somethin.

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Gareth, Newport says...
10:02am Fri 3 Jul 09

stories like this always attract negative feedback for some aspect of it, usually about: the council not doing enough in the first place; or workers not doing enough; maybe the fact that police aren't present; or, if they were present, that it was a scandalous waste of their ("why aren't they out catching criminals?") time!

...but rarely does anyone point their finger at the real culprits - the people who really don't care about the community: those who actually create the mess?

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welsh15, NEWPORT says...
12:28pm Fri 3 Jul 09

I wondered what that big fire was up somerton last week. It must of been one of the skips on. Why do they only do this in council estates. I have three vacum cleaners to get rid of myself.

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Hevsym, Newport says...
4:26pm Fri 3 Jul 09

Dai37 wrote:
why don't you do somethin practical then? rather than just sit around criticisin. spot and report the culprits, clean the place up, set an example! this is a community isue, if you are part of it do somethin.
We do!
I look after our own property, keep our garden tidy, we go out into the street and pick up other peoples rubbish, we pick up the bottles and cans off the street and still almost every day there is another load of furniture or load of fly-tipping left for us.
On some occasions we have to ring the council and ask them to come and cut the grass verge because it grows up to 4 feet without the council mowers cutting it voluntarily. Rest assured Dai, we make every effort here to look after our community, but when it says in the Argus..."Somerton clean up" it should mean the whole of Somerton and not just the bits that can be seen from Chepstow road/ryder cup route

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Hevsym, Newport says...
7:16pm Fri 3 Jul 09

....The mess, Gareth, appears overnight. We can't sit up all night every night waiting to catch the people dumping their rubbish on Libeneth road, we have to get up for work. But believe me, if most of us living here actually saw or knew who was doing the dumping, we would report it, but usually, we wake up to it or pass it as we're driving to work.

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Gareth, Newport says...
12:56pm Tue 7 Jul 09

Hevsym wrote:
....The mess, Gareth, appears overnight. We can't sit up all night every night waiting to catch the people dumping their rubbish on Libeneth road, we have to get up for work. But believe me, if most of us living here actually saw or knew who was doing the dumping, we would report it, but usually, we wake up to it or pass it as we're driving to work.
you got the wrong end of the stick, hevsym. i'm not knocking the community - i can imagine wht you have to go through! - it was aimed at the scum who leave the mess.

they create the misery, but it it the authhorities who continully get the blame.

i hope they get recognised, shopped, convicted and made to wear hi-vis pink jackets whilst clearing up the streets.

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From left, Rebecca Sluman, Liz Coleman and Karen Watkins throw a matress into a skip during the big Somerton clearup From left, Rebecca Sluman, Liz Coleman and Karen Watkins throw a matress into a skip during the big Somerton clearup


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