Between the Ashbourne Town centre and Waterside Park there is a popular, pretty footpath that runs alongside Henmore Brook. In Covid times, when we are urged to stay local this has become an even more important footpath and green space for local residents.
For many years this route has had a caravan parked alongside the footpath, amongst the trees behind Mayfield Road. This caravan was lived in, but then abandoned along with its contents; numerous sacks of bottles, bicycles, shopping trolleys and other debris were left behind and the nearby waterway was polluted with foul waste. The caravan and adjacent trees were then involved in a fire and the abandoned area became a site for masses of litter, fast food debris, bottles and fly tipping.
The “Proud of Ashbourne ‘group has been aware of this site for some time, having been active nearby in the adjacent AFC carpark (opposite the cemetery) and in the footpaths to and around The Hug statue where our previous projects included clearing historical litter and fly-tipping and cutting back brambles to maintain access. Since there had been no activity or active attempts to clean up the caravan site, the group began by trying to establish ownership of the land and contacted the council and local landowners.
In the meantime, some of our most active members, (lead by two particularly
committed members who modestly wish to remain anonymous) began the process of clearing the area. They cut up the remains of the caravan and collected, sorted and bagged the rubbish. It took them three full days to amass several large piles of rubbish ready to be removed from the site.
It transpired the land belongs to the Ashbourne Football Club who, when contacted, were keen to contribute to the removal of the unsightly heaps of debris and agreed to provide the necessary skips.
So on Good Friday a group of footballers from the club arrived to transport all the collected debris filling two skips so it could be removed from the site. They were very efficient and did a great job.
The ‘after’ photos show what a great result has been achieved with the initiative of the “Proud of Ashbourne” team and with the co-operation the landowner, the AFC.
