Murieston residents join together to clean up area

Oct 20 2011 by Alistair Watson, West Lothian Courier

cleanup

FORTY Murieston residents gave up their Sunday morning to clean-up their area.

The event was a joint commununity venture between Murieston Community Council and the West Lothian Council’s NETS Team and was inspired by the, ‘Love West Lothian’, campaign.

And after an almighty effort from the hardy band of volunteers the NETS team took away a lorry load of rubbish of over 70 bags, including two shopping trolleys.

The area covered was down to Restlerigg Lane and the cricket club in one direction and down to Williamston Primary School, over to Murieston East Road, up Murieston West Road to Bellsquarry Road South and including most of the Murieston Trail.

Bright Horizons Nursery volunteered to join in by cleaning up a smaller, child-friendly area on the following Monday.

The volunteers were then rewarded for all their hard work with coffee and cakes after the event and a chance to mingle with their neighbours.

Members of the Art Club and Over 50’s Club served tea and coffee with homemade cakes and biscuits provided by some older residents and those who were unable to attend due to holidays.

Paula Lee, of Murieston Community Council said the main idea behind the event was to demonstrate that a lot can be done when people work together and that it need not take a lot of time and effort to improve our area.

Paula added: “It is very easy to moan about the state of things in your area and to do nothing about it.

“What the residents of Murieston proved is that we are capable of making things better ourselves in just a few hours.

“The NETS team are very professional and helpful, which made the whole event easy to organise.

“All the businesses in the area displayed volunteer notices and it was a real community effort.”

Tania Armstrong, of Ossian Drive, attended the event and said: “It was a great and productive morning.

“And it was nice to meet so many local people and I would definitely do it again.”

Lorna Cooper added: “This was an excellent event. Fun, as well as worthwhile for the whole of the community.”

Everyone who took part in the clean-up has been given a big thank by the local authority team for their superb efforts.