Santas take over North Liverpool for Christmas clean-up

The Beautiful North is all about doing things differently and showing how, through being innovative and targeting and joining-up our resources better,

North Liverpool has been taken over by over 100 volunteers dressed as Father Christmas today (16^th December 2010), who are taking part in a festive clean-up of the area to show its beautiful face for Christmas.

Volunteers from partners involved in the Beautiful North will be led by Liverpool City Council Cabinet members Joe Hansen and Ann O’Byrne and ward councillors from Anfield, County and Kirkdale, along with representatives from Plus Dane Group, Liverpool Primary Care Trust, Riverside Housing, PSS, Liverpool Mutual Homes and many others.

They have all donned Santa suits for the day and are taking part in a range of clean-up activities including litter picking, dealing with fly tipping, cleaning up graffiti, cleaning street signs and visiting local shops to support and advise them on how best to deal with trade waste.

The Beautiful North brings together over 30 public, voluntary and private sector organisations that want to use their existing staff and resources to do things differently in order to deliver real and sustainable change on the ground in the North Liverpool wards of Anfield, County and Kirkdale.

A range of other support activities are taking place throughout the day as part Beautiful North, including distributing Winter Warmth packs to vulnerable residents, increasing park patrols, ‘stop dog mess’ action, school visits and much more.

The work is part of the North Liverpool show your beautiful face campaign, which is a commitment to deliver real change in North Liverpool communities of Anfield, County and Kirkdale and change perceptions of the area.  

Erika Rushton, Enterprise Director at the Plus Dane Group, said:

“Today is a great opportunity to bring organisations together to showcase the beautiful face of North Liverpool in a fun and engaging way.

“The Beautiful North is all about doing things differently and showing how, through being innovative and targeting and joining-up our resources better, we can make big things happen in North Liverpool.

“This festive clean-up is a light-hearted way to launch the campaign, instead of having a costly launch we wanted to get people joining in and doing things that will make a difference.

I am amazed with the willingness of staff from over 30 organisations to volunteer alongside councillors and residents and get involved.”

 Councillor Steve Munby, cabinet member for neighbourhoods, said:

“This is a great chance for a whole range of representatives in the area to come together with local residents and have some fun while at the same time doing some serious work to improve north Liverpool.”