SLIDESHOW: Batley volunteers of all ages club together to clear car park

Batley has a thriving volunteer network that is bringing the best out in the community, according to one of its driving forces.
Little Florence Mann 'enjoys' the clear-up effort.Little Florence Mann 'enjoys' the clear-up effort.
Little Florence Mann 'enjoys' the clear-up effort.

Paul Young, who is involved in spearheading a number of community projects across the town, organised an effort to clean-up a popular Batley car park this weekend.

Despite rainy weather, 18 people from all walks of Batley life turned out, removing a entire skip-full of shrubbery and fly-tipped rubbish and clearing space at the Branch Road site.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Paul said this is just the latest event in what has been a fantastic year for volunteer activity in the area.

He said: “It was a great day for Batley, really positive and everybody had a lot of fun doing it.

“I was really pleased with the turn-out and the fact is that we could have filled that skip three times over.

“It was nice to see all sorts of different people from all different parts of the community get involved. The age range was from 60 years old down to four years old.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“It just shows what one little effort can do - that between us we’ve cleared years and years worth of rubbish in one day.”

There was a rustle of controversy on social media following the clean-up in that the car park is technically owned by the local Conservative Club.

Paul and other volunteers, from across the political spectrum, were quick to disregard this notion.

“The car park is used by general members of the public and nobody from that club used it the entire time we were there on Saturday,” he said.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“What we did was bring together people from all walks of Batley life in order to benefit people from all walks of Batley life. It was a completely non-political thing we did and it was a great day.

“This is just the latest example of what we can do when we all pull together. That car park is in a far better state now.

“We really do have a fantastic community of volunteers in Batley and it’s getting bigger all the time.

“You’ve got the Festival run by volunteers, you’ve got Batley Poets and so on. I’d definitely encourage people to come down and get involved, it’s very rewarding.

“I can’t wait for the next one.”

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Anyone has suggestions for other sites that could be cleaned are asked to contact Paul on 07930 587308 or on Twitter via @BatleyBATs.

There'll be more on the thriving volunteer spirit of Batley in this week's edition of Batley & Birstall News.