Local McDonald’s franchisee Mike Guerin and crew from the Patchway McDonald’s restaurant joined forces with Patchway Town Council and Southern Brooks Community Partnership for a Dreamscheme action day last Wednesday (27th March), encouraging younger members of the community to look after their local environment.
The Dreamscheme squad embarked on a litter picking challenge covering the whole of the Patchway area, starting from the McDonald’s restaurant and Asda superstore in Highwood Lane.
Donning high visibility jackets and armed with litter pickers, the 50-strong team collected 60 bags of litter. A regeneration talk held by McDonald’s and Patchway Town Council in Consiton Community Centre also encouraged the community to take responsibility for keeping their neighbourhood litter-free.
Mike Guerin, local McDonald’s Franchisee, said:
“It was inspiring to see the local community pulling together to take action on litter that damages our environment. Unfortunately there are still a significant proportion of people who think it’s acceptable to drop litter – it’s everyone’s responsibility and through these events we wanted to generate awareness of the issue and encourage them to be more responsible.”
“I’d like to thank the young members of the community, the representatives from Patchway Town Council and my staff for their hard work and for setting a good example of what can be achieved if people pull together. It’s vital that we all do our bit to tackle the issue – everyone from local businesses, to the residents of Bristol should make a commitment to helping protect the local environment.”
Aside from larger litter events such as these, staff at Patchway patrol the surrounding area of the restaurant at least three times a day to collect all litter that has been discarded, regardless of its origin. McDonald’s was the first restaurant to introduce ‘Litter Patrols’ in the UK.
The Dreamscheme programme is a youth volunteering scheme that gets young people involved in their community and rewards them with points that can be used for trips or rewards. The young people that took part in this event were rewarded with a voucher for bowling and a meal deal.
