from Colin Baker at Grays Baptist Church

For too long rubbish has been dumped in the access way between Hathaway Road and Milton Road to the rear of Grays Baptist Church Hall. Builder’s waste, household items such as fridges, freezers, stereos, cupboards, food, children’s toys, packaging for a huge flat screen TV,  garden equipment and garden waste. Not to mention bottles, cans and discarded syringes.

The rubbish hasn’t only been building up in Thurrock’s hidden spaces but also in full view of Thurrock Gazette’s offices in Hathaway Road/Orsett Road. To the rear of the Unicare Chemist in Orsett Road there was to be found the essential sofa’s, beds, mattresses, more fridge/freezers and more and more bottles, cans and general household waste and anything else that passers-by thought to just add. A small fire recently on this land meant there was slightly less rubbish but more cinders to clean up.

I have even witnessed a lady walking down Hathaway Road with a carpet rolled up under her arm which she simply threw on top of all the other rubbish. When I challenged her about it she just said that “the council or the church would clear it up”!

Well, a team of volunteers from Grays Baptist Church has begun. This is hard physical work and also costly (£200 for an 8 yard skip from the really lovely people at Diddy Skip Hire). We really hope that the area we have cleaned up would stay that way and that people would consider disposing of their rubbish properly in future. Meanwhile there is still a lot to be done. The rubbish to the rear of the church hall was completely cleared away about five years ago but it is immense. It is not helped by people parking vehicles there illegally. The rubbish is piled quite high and so it is estimated that we shall probably need to hire several more skips just to get the rubbish under control. The fridge freezers have been taken to the council tipping site to be properly disposed of.

The disheartening thought that we have is that we could have to do this again, we don’t want to think like that but it is sad to think that people might not appreciate the fact that volunteers have done their best to make our environment a better place. I for one am thankful for the good work that our street cleaners do and were it not for them our streets could start looking like the mess dumped in our back alleyways.

The church believes that God has given people the responsibility to take care of the planet we live on and therefore it is not an option to leave the rubbish there to rot and become a breeding ground for rodents. Yes, the rodents have even found their way into our buildings and we have had to take extra measures to protect our pre-school, children and everyone else.

So come on people, LET’S TRANSFORM THURROCK, do the right thing with your rubbish please!

If anyone would be interested to help us on the next clean up day please contact pastacolin@blueyonder.co.uk.

This article also appears on YourThurrock here: http://www.yourthurrock.com/Clean/story-26745114-detail/story.html

Colin Baker is a husband, father of three grown up children, pastor of Grays Baptist Church and the Chair of Transformation Thurrock

… and just a few days later, the flytipping starts all over again…