Council seeks support to spruce up city

The city council is calling on local green groups to back Edinburgh’s 2013 Britain in Bloom bid by helping to spruce up their local neighbourhood.

It’s Your Neighbourhood, run by Keep Scotland Beautiful, is a scheme that aims to bring members of the community together to make a positive change to the place they live, work or spend their leisure time. It is open to groups of all sizes who are interested in cleaning up and greening up their local area.

The initiative forms part of the Royal Horticultural Society’s Britain in Bloom competition, in which Edinburgh is competing against Bristol and the London Borough of Hillingdon in the City category.

Local community groups or businesses who enter the It’s Your Neighbourhood scheme will be mentored by assessors in an effort to improve and progress local green projects. This could be help with identifying funding sources, gardening and maintenance advice or providing access to tools.

Successful participants are presented with a certificate of achievement of either Establishing, Improving, Developing, Thriving, or Outstanding.

Councillor Lesley Hinds, the city’s Environment Convener, (pictured above) said: “Edinburgh will be representing Scotland later this year in the prestigious Britain in Bloom competition and so we’re calling in all green-fingered city residents to back our bid and do their bit to spruce up their local neighbourhood.”

Derek Robertson, Chief Executive of Keep Scotland Beautiful – the independent charity which campaigns, acts and educates on a range of local, national and global environmental issues which affect people’s quality of life, said: “We would welcome any community group who is working to clean up and green up their local area in Edinburgh to register for this years’ It’s Your Neighbourhood campaign. It’s Your Neighbourhood is about giving community groups who work tirelessly year round, national recognition and support for their efforts, and currently we have over 70 groups registered from across Scotland.”

Registration for It’s Your Neighbourhood closes at the end of April. Further information can be found on the Beautiful Scotland website.