The Review Summer 2021 | Page 20

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annual spring clean for stewarton please remember !

Take your rubbish home or use the bins provided

In April this year , as the cherry blossoms bloomed , the SWAT team began our annual spring clean for Stewarton . Into the River Annick we forged , wrestling out one truck wheel , 3 bikes , 2 fence posts , a metal chair and a mattress which had been long buried in the silt and stone of the river bed . Once out , these sodden items were heaved onto wheel barrows and muscled uphill to collection points .

In May as swallows swooped and bluebells illuminated the gardens and woods , we hit Stewarton town centre . Under a cloudy sky , from the viaduct to the MIllhouse , we scrambled to retrieve the usual food and drink containers , poo bags and fragments of disintegrating plastic . The pavements of Stewarton are lined with cigarette butts and scraps of plastic .
Thank you to all the members of the public who came out to help us – from the littlest ( a child of about 5 years ) to the adults . If we want to change the world , we need to change ourselves first . Come on Stewartonians , come and join us .
Work has also been continuing on keeping invasive weeds under control . Firstly , members have been busy spraying the Giant Hogweed in order to catch it before the seed heads explode and send thousands of seeds into the atmosphere , then we will be dealing with the Japanese Knotweed a bit later in the summer , as it is best dealt with once in flower . If you are aware of either of these weeds in your neighbourhood , please contact us at stewartonwoodlands @ gmail . com or on our Facebook page , and we ’ ll get back to you as soon as we can . Don ’ t forget to check our website www . swat . org . uk for lots of interesting information and links .
Contact details : stewartonwoodlands @ gmail . com Mobile number 07774 563531 .

Residents of the Cutstraw road just on the outskirts of Stewarton decided that their countryside was in dire need of a tidy as the roadsides have seen more and more litter ( and some larger items such as a mattress baby seat and a hoover !) building up over recent months and decided to organise a litter pick at the weekend ( 20 / 21st March ) where children and residents alike collected quite a collection of waste & other items .

" It ’ s unfortunate that we had to collect other people ' s litter and not the nicest job to be doing but the road is now cleaned up and a good distance covered from various residents throughout the weekend right up as far as the clunch road end and what a difference it has made - it would be nice if it was kept that way I don ’ t understand how people can ’ t just wait till they get home and dispose of it in their own bins ! Especially as there is livestock in most of the fields up the Cutstraw road . "
Well done to all who came out to help & special thanks to Lee Dagleish of The Sugar Cube who very kindly donated Easter goodies to all the children that participated .
Thank you to the resident that organised the pick David Wilson and Linda Muirhead for sending this across to us .