ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

2015

Format for this evening

Welcome and introductions

Apologies
Annual report
Presentation
Financial Report
Election of managing team
Any other business

What we will look at this evening

Litter picking and fly tip clearance

Flower Troughs
Wild flower verges
2015 focus areas
Need for volunteers
Contact us and keeping up to date with our activities

LITTER PICKING

Where the journey began

7th November 2009

21 bags of litter and 3 tyres

Canal Bridge (Beaufort Road) up to
T-Junction (Llangattock Mountain)
with just the verge picked
The days where we had not learnt
that litter picking was easier
picking litter walking down hill
rather than uphill

And so the battle started

Tyres seemed to have been

breeding

Historic litter was entrenched in

our community

Month in month out

30 bags/ 21 tyres
12 adults/6 children/2 hours

And it kept coming

Expanding our area as the months

went on

Come rain or shine

With nothing surprising us and fly

tips common place

In all weathers

2 miles = 15 bags collected

Where the days of walking across

Llangattock Mountain begged the
question would we ever reach
Garnlydan

General support being shown in the

community with a few exceptions

Number of bags was testament to

how long our community

had been neglected in terms of

litter picking and fly tip removal

The whole parish

Our community it just not what we
see from our doorstep or the
village itself

It is far reaching and we must take

action right across it

And it just kept coming

Until we were reaching a point

Litter levels dropping

Amount collected reducing

Where all the historic litter/fly tips were a

thing of the past

Residents were even letting us know that

there were fly tips present

Now we were beginning to see the light

at the end of the tunnel

LLANGATTOCK MOUNTAIN
SHAKEHOLE FLY TIP CLEARANCE

1st Day Clearance

BBNPA/EA Support

Cars/tyres/oil drums
40 Bags of litter, 49 tyres and over
a ton of scrap metal

Subsequent Visit

Another 190 bags of litter

Just need to get it all out

YEAR 1

551 bags of litter

171 tyres
4.1 tonnes of litter collected
227 miles of roadside verge covered
Made great inroads into removing the litter and fly tips that had
accumulated in and around the community

Year 2 Year 5

Tally

2010 (Year 1)

2011 (Year 2)

2012 (Year 3)

2013 (Year 4)

2014 (Year 5)

Bags of litter collected

551

351

199

208

200

Tyres collected

177

79

65*

29

37

Tonnes of litter collected

4.1

2.1

1.5

1.6

1.4

Not recorded

82

76

77

68

227

1,276

824

1,857

1,027

Not recorded

540

377

417

310

% recycled
Roadside verge cleared (miles)
Volunteer hours

Five years - what has been achieved

Passed the 1,500 bags of litter collected

387 tyres removed from in and around the community
10.7 tons of litter collected
Over 5,200 miles of verge covered
With 1,600 volunteer hours deployed
Achieving an overall recycle rate of 75% of litter picked
70 miles in and around the community covered
Non grant dependent
Keep Wales Tidy Awards 2011 - Runners up in the Action Against Fly
Tipping category

Litter picking the Llangattock way

Litter attracts litter, remove it and you are removing the

advertisement that it is acceptable to litter in and around our
community
We are now firmly on maintenance mode given the efforts in the
early years to remove historic litter accumulations
Where 2014 saw an average of just 25 volunteer hours a month
deployed to pick litter from the area we cover (5 hours a month less
than 2013)
Our area is broken down into manageable areas to pick litter with at
least one litter pick on each area a month with some areas in the
community having multiple picks each month where traffic
movement is heavier

Area covered

Gilwern in the east to Llangynidr in the west on the A4077 & B4558
From Garnlydan along the Llangattock/Llangynidr mountain road on
the B4560 down to both Llangattock and Llangynidr
Ffawyddog and Dardy
Village including Beechwood and Recreation Ground
Canal tow path from PCC/MCC border right through to
Llangattock/Llangynidr border at Dyfnant
Hillside and along the Hafod Road to Brynmawr
70 miles of roadside verge, lanes, paths and canal tow path covered
month in month out

Recycling

Recycling - since 2011 each month we sort through all litter collected
and sort into the following:
Paper, Plastic, Metal, Glass, Textiles & Landfill
With a recycle rate of 75% of litter collected since 2011
Metal drinks cans are sold to scrap dealer which provides revenue
Recently we have begun to sort litter as we pick with two bags on
the litter hoop saving us sorting time at the end of each month

Raising awareness

Safety & Equipment

Hi-vis
Litter picking sticks and hoops
Bags
Fully insured
Road safety signs
Banners

We must be able to stand on our own

two feet if we are to be sustainable

We have an agreement with the Beaufort Estate to pick litter and

clear fly tips from areas of the Breconshire Estate in and around
Llangattock which provides revenue for the group
Sale of metal drinks cans and scrap metal is another source of
revenue for us
One off litter picks i.e. fine litter pick post Greenman Festival licence
on the Glanusk Estate
Where we can leverage in grant funding we do so as it allows us to use
our revenue to purchase equipment and enhance the community
further i.e. flower troughs

Partnering

Blaenau Gwent County Council

Monmouthshire County Council
Powys County Council
Brecon Beacons National Park
The Beaufort Estate
The Glanusk Estate
Greenman Festival
1st Crickhowell/Llangattock Scouts
Llangattock Community Woodlands
Llangattock School
Natural Resource Wales

Keep Wales Tidys

Tidy Wales Award 2014

Keep Wales Tidy Tidy Wales Awards 2014 - Cleaner Communities

Category
Not forgetting that we were shortlisted back in 2011 and came up
runner up in the Action against fly tips category

FLOWER TROUGHS

Sturdy Larch Planters

2013

2013 saw the introduction of 5 flower troughs placed into

community
Powys County Council lands
Wanted to place them in key locations for both the community and
visitors to be able to appreciate them
With the verges around the flower trough maintained
Committed to both summer and winter annuals
Initially the feedback was quiet

2014

2014 saw the introduction of a further 4 flower troughs placed into

community in 2014
The troughs located at the entrance to Plas Derwen seemed to
strike a cord with the community
Introduced perennials into the existing troughs in the autumn to
save on cost of summer/winter annuals
With nine troughs we now need to look for volunteers to commit to
watering, dead heading and mowing around troughs

2015

Building on the success of the flower troughs in past years another

14 troughs will be placed into the community in 2015
We have been successful in securing funding from Keep Wales Tidy
for the purchase of the flower troughs and some of the compost
Greater emphasis on perennials in the troughs
Attract volunteers to maintain the troughs and the verges they are
placed on in order for the troughs to have a sustainable future in
the community

2015 Trough Placement

WILD FLOWER VERGES

 Powys County Council permission secured and informed

Llangattock Community Council of our intentions
Secured funding for the purchase of 2kg of wild flower seeds from
Keep Wales Tidy Natural Buzz funding programme
With initial preparation works started on the verges
Spraying of verges will take by Powys County Council shortly
Wild flower seeds to be sown in April
With verges where wild flowers are present being cut back in
October with clippings left for a week and raked off in order to
allow seeds to fall for the next growing season
Areas will be fallow in winter like they are currently but will be
maintained by the group

Location plan- Wild flower verges

Birds eye view

Verge 1 Roadside view

Verge 2 Roadside view

Verge 3 Roadside view

Supplier/Seed Mix

Rigby Taylor

Rainbow Annuals Mix

Alyssum white
Cornflower
English poppy
Coreopsis
Cosmidium
Cosmos
Californian poppy
Babys-breath white
Flowering flax red
Flowering flax salmon
Pot marigold

Why have we chosen this particular wild

flower seed?
Proven seed as both Monmouthshire and Blaenau Gwent County
Councils have used it on their verges and roundabouts
This mixture gives its first flowers very quickly, only 40 to 50 days
after the first shoots appear.
It is the ideal for use in a flower bed where the aim is a natural feel,
either to promote flowers very early in the year or late in the
season.
The appearance of the first shoots and the development of young
plants are particularly fast. The first flowers appear very quickly and
are succeeded by others, month after month, until October. It is a
mixture of medium-height flowers with lots of colour and contrasts:
so, maximum impact
Not all of the verge will be wildflowers as borders of all three verges
will be mowed on a regular basis setting wild flowers off

Natural Buzz

Keep Wales Tidy

ADDITIONAL FOCUS

Tackling the litter levels to drive them

down further in and around the
community
Local Authorities bordering our area - reminding them of their
obligations
Reintroducing the roadside verge signs in and around the
community
Deposit Refund Scheme (DRS) in Wales - collaboration with Gareth
Clubb at Friends of the Earth Cymru

Fly posting in and around the community

The impact DRS could have in Wales

Metal drinks cans, plastic and glass

drinks bottles
12 bags - 60%

The rest of the litter including

paper, textiles, plastic and landfill
8 bags - 40%

Volunteers Needed

We are always in need of volunteers especially in the following areas of

our activities:

Flower troughs
Wild flower verges
General maintenance
Litter picking
Sorting of litter for recycling

Even just giving an hour a month can make such a difference in our
community

Contacting Llangattock Litter Pickers and

keeping up to date

Contact Pete Bates:

Tel: 01873 812 073
Email: batesovic@yahoo.co.uk
Twitter: @LlangattockPick
Sign up to the Llangattock Green Valleys newsletter:
Web: www.llangattockgreenvalleys.org
Tel: 0800 206 1915
Llangattock Litter Pickers provide regular monthly updates on
activities via the Llangattock Green Valleys newsletter

Thank you
Happy to take questions/comments