Rivermead: addressing the issues

29th July 2022

Following on from our mammoth efforts to clean up Rivermead:

We attended a West Swindon Parish Council Environment and Planning Committee meeting in early May 2022 to discuss the main problems at Rivermead:

  • Hundreds of plastic bottles of urine and plastic bags of poo thrown into bushes by lorry drivers parking along the main road.
  • Heavy flytipping in a few green spaces.
  • Heavy littering from the road.

The following solutions were agreed:

  • A permanent sign to be put in a prominent place where it can be clearly seen by all driving into Rivermead.
  • A public bin to be placed by the road.
  • The parish council to approach the borough council about imposing a weight restriction for parking along the road.

We will continue to follow up on Rivermead and litter pick there from time to time. This is not an easy fix with many contributory factors. This is why Plastic Free Swindon was designed to address many facets of plastic pollution.

We finally finished our deep clean of Rivermead at the end of June. Nice to have some closure. A great job by a great bunch of people! Many thanks to all involved.