A community has come together to clean-up their local park so their kids can have somewhere safe to play.
Mum-of-two Rebecca Cooper was among the parents from New York Community Football Club to stage the litter pick at Hilltop Park in New York, North Shields, after becoming frustrated with the poor state of the area.
And in just two hours on Sunday volunteers cleared the park of a huge mound of rubbish.
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Rebecca, speaking on behalf of the volunteers, is now hoping North Tyneside Council will realise how important Hilltop Park is to local families and invest more money in its maintenance.
Rebecca, 39, explained: "The club organised a team tidy up to make sure our park is a pleasure not a problem. We just want to have a nice safe place for the kids to play. The amount of rubbish we collected in just two hours is disgusting."
Rebecca, who has lived in New York for 20 years said Hilltop Park used to be a safe and pleasant place.
But over recent years the park had fallen into a state of disrepair, and is now home to litter, dog dirt and even discarded mattresses and burnt out motorcycles.
"The council just never come up here. It's been derelict for about five years," she explained. "There's been kid breaking the equipment and smashing glass everywhere.
"We just feel forgotten. Our kids on the estate deserve a local park like ours. We have such a beautiful space with so much potential but if we don’t show them what this space means then they don’t care.
"The ever increasing cost of living crisis we can’t afford to go far, so why shouldn’t our kids have somewhere safe and clean to play? It's more important than ever now."
Around 30 people turned out to help with the litter pick, despite it being organised with just two days notice.
"We had a canny turnout," said Rebecca. "That just shows what you can achieve in two hours, but it shouldn't be us doing it."
Kimberley Pye, Head of Environment and Safer Neighbourhoods at North Tyneside Council, thanked the volunteers for their efforts.
She said: “On Monday afternoon we received a report of a large quantity of rubbish that had been fly tipped near the entrance to the park. We sent out our staff to remove this and carry out a wider tidy up of the area.
"We thank the residents who reported this to us and those volunteers who took it upon themselves to clear rubbish from the park the night before.
"We have many volunteers and community groups across the borough and we never take for granted the invaluable work they do to help us keep North Tyneside clean and attractive. "
She added that North Tyneside Council are taking steps to address wider issues with littering and antisocial behaviour at Hilltop Park.
“We are aware of some wider issues at Hilltop Park with littering and antisocial behaviour and we have taken action to address these.
"This includes putting in a new CCTV camera near the entrance to the park and sending our Community Protection Team to regularly patrol the area.
"We have installed large boulders to restrict the use of motorbikes in the park which we know has caused concern among park users.
"Anyone who is concerned about antisocial behaviour, vandalism, or flytipping can report their concerns to the council via our website.”
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