The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, is calling on Londoners young and old to roll up their sleeves and join this year’s Capital Clean-up.
£40,000 worth of grants and tool kits are available to enable local groups to tidy and brighten up their parks, streets, estates, residential areas and waterways. Anyone from community groups to charities, youth groups to small businesses can now apply for grants of between £500 and £1,500, or a special clean-up kit, to bring volunteers together and create cleaner, greener, and safer local environments.
Now in its seventh year, the Mayor’s Capital Clean-up campaign has already helped thousands of Londoners to get together and smarten up their neighbourhood. This year’s campaign, in partnership with McDonald’s, is expected to support around 200 events, more than ever before. Last year almost 3,000 volunteers helped smarten up their area in 102 events across 30 London boroughs covering an area the size of 21 Wembley Stadiums. They collected more than 2,500 bags of rubbish, removed 91 tonnes of fly tipping, and planted 450 trees.
The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson said: “These ’mini face lifts’ not only boost community pride but make London a more enjoyable and attractive place to live, work, visit and invest in. This is a fantastic opportunity to bring friends and neighbours together to roll up their sleeves and help revitalise their local areas by picking up litter, painting or planting a tree.”
With the long term support of McDonald’s, Capital Clean-up aims to reach out to as many community groups as possible, providing the support they need to host clean-up events in their neighbourhoods.
Katie Parker, Head of Environment at McDonald’s UK said: “We’re proud that our partnership with Capital Clean-up enables communities across London to come together and help improve their local areas. Last year staff from our London restaurants helped organise over 50 community clean-up events, in which 1,400 people took part, and this year we hope that even more people will join in.”
The Mayor and McDonald’s aim to attract 10,000 ‘clean-up local champions’ volunteers by summer 2016.