Hucknall woman wants community support to clean up the town

Molly Davies has started an online petition calling for more bins, cleaner parks, more park wardens and more dog waste bins and she wants as many people as possible from the town to sign it.

To help with this, she has posted the link on the Hucknall People’s Community Facebook page.

When all signatures are collected, Molly says she will hand the petition in to Ashfield District Council and demand action on what she sees as a growing problem in the town.

Molly said: “Since moving to the area myself I have noticed a distinct lack of bins for both litter and dog fouling throughout Hucknall in comparison to the places I have lived before.

"It was when I joined the community group on Facebook, that I saw I wasn’t the only one concerned, as the issues at hand were being discussed frequently.

"I have dogs myself, and we often enjoy the local parks on our walks, and it was odd to see that there were no bins available.

"We do carry our waste and litter home, but you can see why some people may decide to throw theirs into a bush when they have to walk the entire journey home without encountering a bin, which whilst inexcusable, is clearly symptomatic of the problem.

“I really want to just get more amenities from the area, so more bins, and better care taken of the local green spaces and our streets.

"It’s unfortunate that we have quite a few good parks and green areas available to us but these aren’t being looked after properly.

“Dob park and the little green area just off of Garden Road are a huge problem, they’re not taken care of and are just littered with various types of waste.”

Molly added that she had spoken to the council about the issue, who told her it would deploy more wardens.

But she added she had not heard back from the environment team regarding the bins and upkeep of the parks themselves.”

You can sign the petition here.

Coun David Martin, portfolio holder for streets, parks and town centres said: “Ashfield District Council takes pride in providing high quality, clean open spaces for our residents. This is why we are investing almost £2m this year alone into our parks and open spaces across Ashfield.

“Hucknall is host to a number of fantastic parks including its award-winning flagship park in Titchfield Park.

"We are currently undertaking a survey of up to a thousand existing public bins across the district to ensure our service is as efficient as possible.

“This has included spaces like Hucknall’s Dob Park, which is run by Nottinghamshire County Council.

“Despite this, residents should be reminded that if they do not pass a bin on their route, littering is still inexcusable.

"We now have a designated team of environmental enforcement officers patrolling our parks and town centres who have issued hundreds of fixed penalty notices for littering and dog fouling in the past month, each costing the culprit up to £100.

“Supported by our upcoming anti-littering campaign, these actions prove we are serious about making the district a cleaner and greener place for everyone to enjoy.”