Information posted on behalf of Cllr Jane Ashworth, Stoke-on-Trent City Council Leader
Centenary Big Clean in the Community
We are well and truly in our city’s Centenary year, with activities being planned throughout 2025.
Over the last two years, incredible work has taken place to help reduce the number of illegal dumping incidents in the city, and this momentum has maintained with residents, community groups, and businesses pulling together to #LoveSOT and arranging litter picks and sprucing up areas of the city.
Since Tuesday 20 June 2023, the official launch date of the ‘Illegal Dumping in our Towns’ campaign, the council’s environmental services team has issued over 3,000 fixed penalty notices and cleared 12,465 incidents. In September 2023, City Council launched the incredibly successful ‘#LoveSOT’ community clean-up fortnight,’ which boasted over 20 businesses, community groups, and resident associations pledging their support to make the city a cleaner, greener place.
There’s lots of activities taking place in the coming weeks, including a ‘Centenary Big Clean in the Community’. During this time, a number of local councillors right across the city will be supporting communities with litter picks and clean-up events. Council staff will also be volunteering their time to support works across the city.
YOU can also join in as you’ve done in previous years, starting in March and continuing throughout 2025 and beyond. By volunteering your time and that of your organisation to help plant, paint, decorate, mow, clean and any other works to help to improve community spaces that are dear to you in Stoke-on-Trent, along with other areas that we need your help in supporting us on.
- Staffordshire Police will be supporting activities via the Days of Action, across town centres in the city.
- The BID will be focussing on the city centre.
- The Canal and River Trust will be covering a stretch of the canal.
For more details of activities that you can get involved in, please email environmental.admin@stoke.gov.uk. But for now, you, your staff, volunteers, and service users to take part in sprucing up your local area, and to use that e-mail address to let the Centenary team know about what you will be doing.
If you’re looking to work on public land, please carry out a risk assessment, and please email environmental.admin@stoke.gov.uk about any equipment you’ll use, and the team will be more than happy to assist.
City Council will also promote these activities as widely as possible, and you’d be welcome to do so too, just use the hashtag #lovesot.
