Our estate in Pennyburn, Kilwinning recently benefitted from a five-figure investment to clean up the area.

We organised a two-day event ‘The Big Pennyburn Clean Up’  which was supported by North Ayrshire Council, Cranberry Moss Community Centre, and members of the Pennyburn Tenants and Residents Association.

We own just over 500 properties on the estate and organised for container skips to be placed throughout the estate and helped residents dispose of rubbish and household items. All three skips were full on the afternoon of day two as locals made best use of the opportunity to have a good clear out.

Riverside Scotland employees and their grounds maintenance contractor ID Verde cleared rubbish from gardens and carried out litter picking across the estate, and the Council’s Environmental Health Team visited several residents to discuss the condition of their garden area.

We also set up an information hub at Cranberry Moss Community Centre where customers could enjoy a cuppa and seek advice from colleagues and partner agencies on affordable warmth, pest control, fly tipping, employment opportunities with contractors and more.

Heather Anderson, Head of Service Delivery organised the event and is keen for residents to keep up the good work.

“Pennyburn is one of our biggest estates and we’ve had issues with fly tipping for a while. We organised a skip event a couple of months ago which went down well with customers, so we decided it would be great to organise a ‘Big Clean Up’ in partnership with other agencies and contractors.

“Altogether, the cost of delivering this clean up event was in the region of £20,000. Whilst Riverside Scotland is keen to support local communities and neighbourhoods, events such as this are not something that we have the resources to hold on a regular basis.

“Going forward, Riverside Scotland will be exploring initiatives which will enable residents to manage garden maintenance more easily themselves, and we will be working with our partners in the North Ayrshire Council Private Sector Housing team and Environmental Health services to take a stronger approach if residents are fly tipping and failing to maintain their garden areas to an acceptable standard.”

Riverside Scotland has written out to update residents following the success of this event.