On Tuesday 22nd October, we had a visit from The Parks Trust who delivered an assembly to the year 5 children. Here are some of the facts that the children were told...

When MK was built, there were 23 million trees planted! The Parks Trust look after almost half of our spaces in MK. There are 42 parks in MK looked after by them. The parks are there for everyone to enjoy. Some of the most costly things that the Parks Trust contend with are litter not being taken home with you after a picnic or disposable BBQs which are extremely harmful to our wildlife.

The lakes, canals and streams are not safe to swim in. We learnt about leptospirosis - a disease which can be caught from rat's wee can be in the water. 

We also learnt that one week's worth of litter collected by them (in addition to that which MK council collects) weighs the same as an elephant! 3000kg. It costs nearly half a million pounds every year just clearing up littler from the parks. They would like to be investing in new benches, better lighting, better access to the sites etc but they can't due to the litter problem currently. Therefore everyone needs to do their bit to take litter home with them and recycle. Recycling is so important due to the amount of time it takes for something to break down naturally - a plastic bottle could still be there in 400 years time!

Key take away message - the next time you visit the parks for a picnic, please take your litter home with you!