Home Page Haverhill News

Members of the public joined Haverhill’s community smbassadors for a litter-pick around the School Lane area of the town on Saturday.

Armed with litter pickers, gloves and other equipment the team helped to fill numerous bags with rubbish collected in the area from the rugby club, duck pond, park and surrounding areas.

The community ambassadors scheme was launched in February following the consultation on the Haverhill Community Budget Plan, during which members of the public told ONE Haverhill that they wanted to be able to do more to help keep their local community maintained.

ONE Haverhill is an independent partnership that brings organisations and resources together to make them more effective and efficient in the town – providing ONE voice for Haverhill.

Following an appeal in the local media, volunteers came forward to take part in the scheme which sees each participant taking responsibility for a certain area of Haverhill in order to report issues such as broken street lights, pot holes and broken public fences, signage and pavements.

Town mayor and ONE Haverhill board member Cllr Roger Andre said: “It was great to see so many people turn out to help in this Volunteer’s Week.

"Some problems we can solve ourselves and this is one of them. Let’s hope more people will take up the challenge.”

The community ambassadors scheme is run and supported by Community Action Suffolk and the ambassadors are able to carry out minor repairs where they want and are able to, supported by St Edmundsbury and Forest Heath volunteer field officer Elaine Hewes and with equipment provided by Suffolk County Council.

Elaine Hewes said: “It was a fantastic turnout for the community ambassadors litter pick in the School Lane area.

"We managed to fill many sacks with rubbish before the rain came. Thank you to everyone who came along including students from Castle Manor Business and Enterprise College eco committee and town mayor Cllr Roger Andre, Cllr Anne Gower and Cllr Maureen Byrne. Plus the young people who saw us working and volunteered to help. A great community effort.”

For further information on becoming a Haverhill Community Ambassador contact Elaine Hewes at Community Action Suffolk on 01440 708444.