The new Kingsmere Community Association sweeps clean & against all the odds removes a massive forty seven & a half tons of refuge from our estate (and probably from half of Eastbourne!) using 25 skips, two 40 yard containers & three 7 ton cage lorries. Below you will see the new K.C.A. members after a long, hard day working non-stop, with fantastic help and support from the Kings Church team, Mike Quarry, (Raglan H/A), Margaret Salsbury our new local Councillor and of course Steve Gilbert of ASDA for the loan of their wheely cages. All were there & prepared to get their hands dirty to help us clean up our estate. We would like to say a big thank you to all of you that helped us over this exhausting weekend. The start of  Saturday began with worry and concern, tensions were high due to the fact that far smaller skips arrived than the ones we had ordered & 100% more rubbish than we expected had appeared too!. "Don't panic Mr Mannering" came to mind but as phones calls were frantically being made for back-up skips the whole Green Day team went to work, within a few hours calm and grit kicked in and a sense of pride started to emerge.

By late afternoon after lunch for the workers (Tea & Hot-Dogs)  news was flowing back to HQ  that residents were clubbing together  and helping each other to move rubbish to the skips, even making teas for each other with neighbours they had not ever spoken too. A real sense of pride and community spirit had kicked in (and relief!), one resident even likened it to a street party. The Council did us proud as at first we thought that one lorry would be enough and the lads working the lorry were due to knock off when it was full, but they returned later in the day and will return for the third and final time Monday, well done lads.  Even the skip companies bent over backwards to help. We also supplied the free low energy lamps to all of those who requested them in total we gave over 650 away.

Click on pictures to enlarge

Pic of the day, caught sitting on the job!

Monday

JOB DONE

On Sunday we realized that we had at least twenty times more rubbish than we expected on residents drives and of course, being a Sunday, there was no way of getting more skips. Therefore we decided to remove all the rubbish from the drives by Sunday evening as promised and pile it up on the car park by Conqueror hall. We had stated that Green Day was a two day event and we would remove your rubbish, it soon turned into a three day job for us but on Sunday, the second day, every home had been serviced as offered.

We also arranged for a security company to watch the mountain of rubbish all night Sunday to stop children and fly tippers & we are expecting a report from them soon regarding two incidents they dealt with during the early hours.

By the time the councils cleansing manager turned up on Monday at 4pm, as a result of the only complaint tendered, the whole car park was spotless. He was very surprised and amazed of what we achieved by 3.15pm.

We have received many phone calls from housing association staff, residents and more congratulating us & thanking us on a tremendous task,..... thank you, your feedback is so much appreciated.

I must say I did not expect to be doing this kind of thing on my Birthday, but it was great when all the helpers sang Happy Birthday to me while loading the final skip reminding me of my youth days, even although it was hard work we had great fun.  Ian played hard...on his mini motor bike, OK so some of us don't want to grow up, count me in on that one. Below you can see pictures from Saturday, Sunday & Monday just click on them to see full size.

We also supplied thirty large 10 ltr bags of chip bark & over 80 flower bulbs to residents offering to tidy up our communal area's which will get done over the next few weeks. We also returned over 25 ASDA trolleys too!.

Many of you asked 'Will you be doing this again' well, after much thought, yes, annually, but with some big changes to make the day run a little smoother, stop people from outside of our area dumping their rubbish and not on such a huge scale! Now its all over we would encourage residents to keep up that community spirit, if you can go to the local dump, please do, in fact why not help a neighbour who can't? Its free to take rubbish to the local dump, so don't spoil your gardens and the estate. We have worked so hard to help you this time, all for free. Next year we may have to charge a small sum as the cost of doing Green Day was phenomenal, so before you dump in your garden or on the estate, think. We will not be able to take so much next time! Please also thank your landlords who backed us all the way and covered most of the cost of this event and also your council, namely Ian Fitzpatrick and Paul Marsden and also thanks to Asda.  We must also say a big thank you to the all skip companies, especially Kingspan who rescued us on Monday at very short notice. Finally thanks to Bob at Eagle Watch security for manning Conqueror Hall Sunday night.

Why not now take the opportunity to tidy up and plant your front gardens, just imagine how beautiful the estate would look if we all just did a few minutes a week. Use plants that will flourish and grow bigger with more flowers year after year, like dahlia's. Langley market has great offers on plants on a Saturday so its not expensive to do. The image of Kingsmere to visitors would change and you would feel proud. We could even do a gardening competition with super prizes and a gardening club. That's the whole point of the new KCA, to change our estate for the better, to encourage community spirit, to make full use of our community hall by laying on events for you and your children. Let's make Kingsmere a place people want to move to, not from.

 Together, we can do it!

If you would like to become a member of the KCA and help to improve our community please contact Kate Daly, Secretary at 13 Alfred Road, Kingsmere.

We Thank You all