4 thoughts on “Ickenham pICK-up”

  1. Ickenham’s first full village litter picking event – 27 October 2018 (for one hour)

    A crisp five pound note, a wallet containing a driving licence, RAC membership card, golf range pass, national book tokens, national insurance number card for a resident in London W2, shoes and jackets, track suit bottoms, and a picture of a Tottenham Hotspur star were all plucked from the streets of Ickenham on Saturday 27 October 2018.
    Some 36 bags full of street rubbish were piled up in front of the Village Hall in Swakeleys Road much to the consternation of mother of Mia, whose fifth birthday party was taking place later in the day. Sorry Mia, we hope it did not upset your guests when they arrived for the fun and games, balloons and party cake. Happy birthday to you.
    Other full bags were left on route of the litter pickers. They made the village the cleanest in England for a short time.
    Over 150 plastic bottles were picked up in the hour’s litter pick focusing mainly on the High Road, Swakeleys Road, Austins Lane and Long Lane.
    One volunteer and her husband counted 350 cans into their rubbish bags.
    Young volunteers came with their parents so their schools – Brakespear and Vyners should be very proud of their students’ community involvement.
    More litter picking events are planned and are needed to keep the place spick and span before traffic generated by the HS2 scheme takes hold. From next June onwards there could be up to 550 traffic movements a day from the Ickenham/West Ruislip Portal. If drivers see mountains of rubbish on the streets they drive through they may think that a bit extra chucked from their cabs will not make any difference. HS2 contractors have agreed to include litter in driver’s induction training. The message “do not dare to litter” will resonate loud and clear.
    Councillor Philip Corthorne (who represents West Ruislip including the Brackenbury and Ickenham Park estates) attended the event and joined in collecting rubbish. Well done Philip. Pressure now on him and other London Borough of Hillingdon councillors to deliver what the Ickenham residents say they want: clear signage indicating Ickenham is, or aims to be litter free, and more bins in litter hotspots.
    All Ickenham residents should be proud of its litter pickers who want to see a clear and tidy village.
    Special thanks to Rachel Evans and the The Swakeleys Home Guard Club, where pickers went for light refreshments afterwards.
    We can all make Ickenham a litter free zone.

    Compiled by David Porter

    27 October 2018

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  3. Thank you Craig. I have been lobbying TFL about removing the rubbish. So far my efforts have been unsuccessful although I receive a lot of noises of sympathy from them. Yesterday’s pICK-up event, the first in Ickenham’s history I believe, attracted well over 50 volunteers. I am finding out today that a considerable number of pickers picked up rubbish from around their houses but did not go to the Village Hall to dump their rubbish. So I suspected the participation level was three times the number of names picked up during the event. Remember it was just ONE hour. In that time volunteers collected 152 plastic bottles (pickers were asked to count them when they plucked them from the streets). One couple amassed 350 drinks cans during clearance of a pretty ugly place litter-wise. Hazardous material was identified and reported to a councillor. One of the lighter moments was when a child from a local school who had joined in with her mum picked up a crisp five pound note. A short report was written on the event but, alas, no avenue to publish it. Sorry. Thank you Ickenham Residents Association for publishing a picture of volunteers’ efforts. Many bags outside the Village Hall. The next big push on litter will be achieved in our local schools. That says nothing about what is needed to stop HS2 from further littering the place when they are allowed 550 large vehicle movements (>7.5 tonnes) a day. Currently they are permitted 24 daily movements.

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  4. A lot of rubbish unfortunately is dumped by the station where they have cut a load of trees around Ickenham station. ________________________________

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