My litter picking adventure by Matilda

 The Friends of Mayow Park committee found out that some of our younger park users care enough about the park that they decided to do something about the litter problem. Read Matilda's report below. Would you be willing to take part in Matilda's suggestion for a monthly litter-pick?

We welcome posts from children who want to improve Mayow Park for everyone to enjoy.

My name's Matilda and I live very close to Mayow Park in Adamsrill Road. It's my favourite park because I know all of the names of most of the dogs, everyone in the park says hello to you, and there are lots of places to explore.

But recently I noticed that there has been more and more horrible litter being dropped, particularly in the areas where me and my friends like to explore, in the trees along the sides of the park.

So I decided to do something about it. First of all I asked for a litter picking stick for Christmas, which I got, and then I got a group of friends together who were also annoyed at the litter. This group was made up of twins Rosanna & Zander, Jessica, Prue and Barnaby.

Matilda's Christmas present

We collected 5 big bags of rubbish just from one side of the park alone, in the beautiful green trees, and 2 refuse sacks full. 

I think there should be one day a month when everyone who enjoys the park should come and pick some litter up, at least one bag. You don't even need a litter picking stick, my Grandad says you can use a stick with a nail in the end.

A small selection of rubbish collected

Oh and also, please stop walking on the lovely flowers, my brother is 2 and gets very upset and recently started an argument with a grown man about it!

Matilda. 6.

FIDO visits Mayow Park 30th July 2015

I found FIDO and his handler Steve this morning at 9.30 in Mayow Park. They were in the grass area around the dawn redwood tree searching for animal faeces.
FIDO is a specialist dog fouling removal machine (Faeces Intake Disposal Operation), an all-terrain cart able to collect 240 litres of animal mess using its powerful vacuum tube to suck up the mess and into a stainless steel container. And if FIDO cannot get into any corners, Steve comes along with his special poo pick-up stick.

I joined FIDO and Steve for a few minutes to see what we could find in just this small area of the park. Today it seems the main contributions were from the local foxes and these were swiftly picked up. I know families like to picnic in this shady space so it is useful that FIDO comes to visit.
Unfortunately FIDO cannot visit as often as Steve would like because they have to go to other parks in the borough.

Meet FIDO the faeces collection machine

specialist faeces pick-up stick

Thank you to FIDO and Steve for your efforts to keep the park clean.

Microchip dogs event 15th July 2015

A free event for dog owners took place in Mayow Park on Wednesday 15th July 2015. This proved popular and quite a few of our regular dog walkers attended. Dogs were able to get a free microchip and ID tag engraving, to help put dogs and owners back together in the event of a dog being lost. From April 2016 all dogs in England will be required by law to be microchipped.

Members of Lewisham Staff who ran this event in Mayow Park

Poster publicity for the event