Clear Out or Just Clear Up?

Grace Mcluaghlin reports from Lenton Blvd on the latest clean up event


Residents of Lenton, locals and students, combined forces on Wednesday 10th October to encourage a cleaner attitude to the surrounding area.

Lenton has seen its student population rise dramatically in the last 30 years which has formed tensions in the community. Nottingham Council and Nottingham University’s Student Union planned a day of clean up on Lenton Boulevard to promote a positive integration for the neighborhood. The clean up included bin allocation and numbering, sweeping of pavements and tidying of house fronts.

It is hoped that students will become aware of the negative impact of their rubbish which can be produced too often by plain ignorance. Mark, who has lived in Lenton for the last 30 years remarked “I don’t have a problem with noise, it’s the mess. It is worst in June and July”.

As a former student of Politics at UoN, Mark made a point of highlighting the hunger of Lenton’s landlords that has contributed to the flood of students. “I know one landlord with property ownership over 100, there is just no need. When I was at University, students lived all over, I had friends who walked from Forest Fields. Nowadays, I know only one other family in Lenton, everyone else is a student”.

The volunteers, who consisted of members of the council and SU, local residents, and community workers, began cleaning at 10am and finished at 5pm. Melanie Futer, the Off Campus Student Affairs Manager at UoN praised the day as “how it used to be in the good old days” and commended the SU’s Siân Green and the other SU representatives for their enthusiasm.

Credit to those involved; Mike Cole, Sue Crossman, Melanie Futer, Siân Green, Matt Styles, Luke Mitchell, Charlotte Bezant, Jonny Bell, Mike Dore, Anil Palmer and everyone else who took part.

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