Published Wednesday 22 June 2016 at 12:40
Around 150 volunteers got together to collect 80 bags of rubbish as part of a pre-Ramadhan clean-up.
Volunteers included residents of Shear Brow and Brookhouse along with students from Park Lee Markaz-Uloom, Milham St Mosque, OneVoice Blackburn, Jamiatul-Ilm-Wal-Huda, the Abu Hanifah Foundation, representatives of the Interfaith Council and Brookhouse Development Group
The army of litter-pickers targeted streets, back alleys and grassed areas, working their way along London Road to Whalley Range and Randal Street.
The event that started at 11am ran until 3pm and covered around 18 streets.
Litter picking equipment was provided by Blackburn with Darwen Council through the Your Call scheme.
Community Worker and Brook House Development Group Clean-Up Programme lead Faz Patel, who helped organise the clean-up, said: “What a fantastic, mixed community. Everyone’s here, young and old helping side by side.
“It shows people really are concerned by these sort of things, they just need some help and some encouragement.”
Randal Street Business Owner, Imran Patel, said: “This clean-up has been good but the key is for people who live around here to continue and take pride in the area.”
Executive member for Regeneration at Blackburn with Darwen Council, Councillor Phil Riley, said: “I’d like to congratulate these volunteers for all their hard work. It’s great to see the community come together like this and by encouraging people through community pride schemes like Your Call, we can all benefit from a cleaner and greener place to live.”
