Column: Starbeck in Bloom - Get ready for planting

As a group we had organised several events for the national Tidy Britain campaign for Clean for the Queen to celebrate the Queen’s 90th birthday.

We arranged for children from Starbeck Primary School to cross the road and join children from Springwater School to litterpick both Cats Field and Belmont Field.

Crowns were made for the day but what we hadn’t planned for was the six inches of snow covering all the ground by 9am! However the show must go on, and actually by the time the mayor and mayoress arrived the snow was thawing.

They were well wrapped up and wearing their regalia cheerfully led the children looking for litter.

One little girl was a bit distressed - not with the freezing weather but because the Queen hadn’t arrived.

The whole purpose of the events, Starbeck in Bloom felt, was to join together groups who wouldn’t normally meet.

On the Saturday morning Scouts, Guides and councillors and members of public successfully litterpicked the old railway track from Starbeck to Bilton, meeting up with Bilton Conservation group members at the Bilton end.

On Saturday afternoon members of St Andrew’s Church joined with allotmenteers from St Andrew’s allotments to clear rubbish from the perimeters of the adjacent allotments.

So despite the snow, rain, sunshine and hailstones the weekend was a success.

In total over the three events about 18 bags of rubbish were collected in the Royal purple sacks and Starbeck looked cleaner for all the volunteers efforts.

Now we can turn to flowers. If the weather improves we can start our workparties of weeding and planting.

For the next two Saturdays we will meet at 8am outside the library in the High Street, then after Easter we will start our Wednesday evening weed nights when the days are longer - it is quite tricky weeding in the dark!

Volunteers are always welcome with always a variety of jobs to do.

If you are interested, give Christine Stewart a call on 01423 545024.