The day was a great success and despite the weather, over 35 people
turned up at the event this Saturday!! This included:

"Friends of Angel Meadow Park" group
Local residents and other volunteers who'd seen flyers about the
event
Two lovely ladies who'd heard the bulletins on GMR radio (more about
them later)
Local councillors including Lib Dem Marc Ramsbottom and Mark
Clayton, Labour's Jim Battle and M Carmody
Groundwork Irk Valley Project Officer, Cath Hartley plus some of her
colleagues
And of course the Clean Team who included: Carl Rhodes, Phil Brown
and Paul Bartley

Work began promptly at 09.00 after each volunteer had collected a
pair of gloves, litter pickers and bin liners (all supplied by the
Council and Marble Arch Pub). Initial efforts were concentrated
around the stairwell and gravestones bordering Aspin Lane but as
more and more volunteers turned up the work spread out, tackling the
perimeters and entrances. A hardy bunch of volunteers - Tim,
Bronwyn, Claire and Stewart took out their 9-5 frustration relishing
the cutting down of brambles and hedging.

The Clean Team, with strimmers and rakes cracked on -loading 3
trucks with debris and litter!! They did a marvellous job, were
friendly (see photos) and continued work long after we'd retired to
the pub at 12.00.

I ran around carting rubbish off, ensure volunteers had registered
and were informed - and gave a interview to a reporter from the
Manchester Evening News - we are hoping a story will appear in the
paper tomorrow (22/03/04)!! Then I was off again handing out the
refreshments
which the council and Wing Yip - the Chinese Supermarket has given
us!!

The biggest worry was the many drug needles people were still
finding. Adrian reported to me how he'd picked up at least 200 and
at one point I put nearly 20 in a SHARPS box plucked from the
litter!!

Around 11.00 Bronwyn and plus some volunteers set about the massive
task of planting the 200 primroses, celandines, lupines and poppies
which had been supplied free by the National Wildflower Charity -
Landlife.

The event was perfectly timed because at 12.00 the heavens opened
and rain poured down but we'd done a marvellous job - the stairwells
were cleared for the first time in many years - and accessible!! The
perimeters looked clean and not a trace of litter was to be seen.

Everyone was still keen to help and we ensured that all rubbish was
bagged and put in the skip loaned to us by the Clean Team - and that
all tools were collected up.

Then thanking everyone for their participation, the volunteers were
rewarded with a hot chip butty kindly prepared by Ema and Philip at
The Marble Arch Pub. We settled down with beer in hand to chat with
new friends and speculate about future work to the park.

The two ladies I mentioned earlier, Ailsa and Sheila had heard of
the Clean Up day advertised on the radio! They were members of
Manchester Civic Forum and provided Walking Tours of the Ancoats
area - they were so thrilled with the clean up day and told us all
about the historical significance of the area. We hope to engage
with them to provide our group a tour of the Park in the near
future.

Please see the photo's I've uploaded in the Photos --> Clean Up Day
section on the Yahoo website.

Thank you all for your efforts in helping this day a tremendous
success