Children, community groups and the elderly will be coming together next week for a major clean-up of Leith Walk, as part of Police Scotland’s commitment to community engagement.
Ship Shape Leith Walk will take place on Monday 10th, Tuesday 11th and Wednesday 12th June, between 10am and 3pm.
Residents of the Port of Leith Housing Association Jamieson Place Supported Accommodation, St Mary’s Star of The Sea Parish Church and pupils from Pilrig Park will be helping over the course of three days.
Over 50 pupils from St Mary’s Primary School will be assisting on Monday afternoon between 1pm and 3pm.
The main aim of the initiative is to tackle the ‘eye-sore’ issues of vandalism and graffiti.
Volunteers will be given cleaning and graffiti removal equipment from the City of Edinburgh Council, and will progress work from Leith Walk all the way up to Elm Row.
Specialist cleaning teams from the council will handle large scale graffiti vandalism through chemical removal.
As each block is completed, ‘We Love Leith’ will be stencilled on paving stones to indicate that the work has been completed.
Police Constable Andy Higgins said:- “We are delighted to work on worthwhile projects such as this with our partners and our community who are volunteering to remove illegal graffiti and defacing of street furniture in the Leith area.
“Police Scotland is committed to tackling all forms of anti-social behaviour and will deal robustly with any person who is in involved in any acts of vandalism.
“We hope that community projects like this will really help to revitalise the community spirit of Leith.”
Councillor Lesley Hinds, Environment Convener, said:-“Ship Shape Leith has proved to be a huge success with the local community with residents and businesses coming together to tidy up their streets. I am sure the work planned next week will have a positive impact and will prove to be somet
hing everyone can take immense satisfaction and pride from. One of our key partnership commitments of the Capital Coalition is to maintain and improve the quality of life in Edinburgh and Ship Shape Leith is a fine example of this in action.”
John graduated from Telford College in 2010 with an HNC in Practical Journalism and since then he worked for the North Edinburgh News, The Southern Reporter, the Irish News Review and The Edinburgh Reporter. In addition he has been published in the Edinburgh Evening News and the Hibernian FC Programme.
