Longridge's environment champions celebrate steps to becoming plastic free town

LEG members campaigning in 2020 to save hedgerows

A town’s environment group is celebrating its many successes of the past year - achieved amid the restrictions of the pandemic lockdowns.

Longridge Environment Group (LEG) Spokeswoman Margaret Baugh said:”Despite all the difficulties of 2020 LEG achieved much more than we thought possible.”

She paid tribute to the work of the group's ecology and plastic reduction teams, noting many local businesses had signed up to reduce their use of single use plastic.

A pop-up plastic free Christmas display organised by LEG (Longridge Environment Group

Other highlights included opening a regular plastic free market in the town, providing tips on reducing use of plastic and seeing local schools work to become plastic free schools.

Margaret said: "We looked at our use of avoidable plastic at home and many started to buy refills from our first plastic free market. We provided regular top tips on social media on how everyone can reduce their

plastic footprint and reached thousands with our message."

The group also filled four planters with herbs and vegetables for community use and organised pop-up exhibitions in the centre of the Ribble Valley town. Members made fabric shopping bags to give away at the local CoOp.

LEG members campaigned about the loss of hedgerows

Margaret continued: "We baked cakes to celebrate our birthday and gave them away with a special message. Our secret poetry queen placed slate tiles with words to inspire us and remind us of the beauty of nature and of human nature when we are kind. We gave away bee friendly plants for local gardeners to help our wildlife."

LEG encouraged the community to come together to plant trees and a new hedge. LEG members also demonstrated against the illegal damage to hedges by developers.

Margaret pledged their work would continue noting: "We wrote to developers and continue to maintain vigilance.

We wrote to supermarkets about how they could try harder. We litter picked and we wrote to Ribble Valley Borough Council improving their recycling record and we will engage further with both supermarkets and RVBC in 2021. We linked with others nationally, and internationally, in environmental festivals on-line and hosted our own on-line Green Futures Festival with films and talks ... We’ve only just started. "

New members are welcome. Fore more information about joining email [email protected]

Margaret added: "Tell us what you want us to do and what you want to do to make 2021 so much better than 2020.”