Parks volunteers invited to join clean ups around Brighton and Hove

More than a thousand people are being contacted by the council to ask if they will help clean up their local park.

They expressed an interest in volunteering when Brighton and Hove City Council carried out its Big Parks Consultation last autumn.

The council said: “Over a thousand people who expressed an interest in volunteering in Brighton and Hove’s parks and open spaces are being contacted by the council asking how they would like to contribute.

“Last autumn the authority staged its Big Parks Consultation on priorities for parks, given that it had to save £600,000 from its parks budget over four years due to national funding cuts for councils.

“Around 3,500 people responded to the survey – a record for such a consultation in the city.

“Email addresses were provided by 1,100 people who said they could be contacted about volunteering in parks.

“Would-be volunteers are now being emailed and invited to events in coming months where they can meet parks staff and find out how to get involved. Anyone is welcome.

“The response will help the council’s Cityparks service put detail on its plans to create a high-quality volunteering service. This would supplement, rather than replace, paid staff.”

Councillor Gill Mitchell, who chairs the council’s Environment, Transport and Sustainability Committee, said: “We want to say thank you very much to over 1,000 people who gave us their email address indicating an interest in volunteering.

“Now we’re really keen to harness that enthusiasm and find out how this goodwill can be turned into activity to improve our parks.”

Two types of events have been lined up during May, June, July and August – clean-up days and “introduction to volunteering” days.

The introduction to volunteering days involve meeting a park ranger for a short while, walking around a site and looking at the sort of things that volunteers can do there and elsewhere.

Sessions are being held on four dates

Clean-up days involve meeting a park ranger, helping clean up and learning how to help keep a local green space cleaner.

Sessions are also taking place on four dates including the late August bank holiday Monday. The times and dates are

At each venue volunteers should look out for a Cityparks vehicle.

General parks volunteering opportunities can be discussed.

For more details, visit www.brighton-hove.gov.uk/parksvolunteers or email cityparks.volunteers@brighton-hove.gov.uk.