After incidents at the weekend of some Jesus Green users leaving their picnic mess behind them,  Cambridge City Council Leader, Councillor Lewis Herbert and the Executive Councillor in charge of parks and open spaces, Councillor Anna Smith, have appealed to people to keep all of the city’s green spaces clean this summer.

Councillor Herbert said: “It’s clear there is a big gap between the behaviour last weekend of most people and the actions sadly of a small, thoughtless minority.  Being out late Saturday myself, I saw that much used Laundress Green was pretty spotless thanks to responsible users there.

Yet several parts of Jesus Green had been trashed. I would hope that in reasonable tone, other users of the parks could point out their responsibility to people planning to walk away leaving a total mess.  All people who want to enjoy our parks in good condition need to leave them that way too.

Our staff are performing a stunning job every summer morning clearing the waste and recycling bin areas, and cleaning all our wonderful green spaces for the next day’s use. And our enforcement staff will be out and will issue fixed penalty fines to all litterers they catch, or are tracked down.  It’s individual behaviour and responsibility that matters here. We all need to enjoy Cambridge through a hopefully long warm summer and we want everyone to keep enjoying it, so I ask those not showing care recently to start doing so.”

Councillor Smith added: “‘I’ve been out with our cleansing teams, and have seen for myself how hard they work, often before anyone is up and about, to keep our city clean and tidy. However, I was really struck by how much of their time is wasted by picking up litter that should never have been dropped in the first place. I urge people not to throw litter onto streets and parks but to use the bins provided or to take their litter home with them.”