VOLUNTEERS put in an estimated £45,000 worth of their own time supporting Blackburn with Darwen Council’s ‘Your Call’ clean up campaign, borough environment boss Cllr Jim Smith will tell colleagues.

In a report to tomorrow’s Council Forum, he admits ‘several clean up events were cancelled due to the bad weather in early March’

Cllr Smith says: “Despite the recent downturn in event numbers, several things are giving cause for optimism.”

He says in his report: “Using a widely accepted methodology of costing volunteer time from April 1 2017 to the end of January 2018, Your Call clean up volunteers contributed approximately £45,000 of volunteer time, to the benefit of their neighbourhoods.”

He reveals that Lancashire Volunteer Portal has seen 80 residents signing up for the first time to be volunteer litter picker adding to the 350 people already taking part in Your Call clean-ups.

Cllr Smith also highlights the success of Keep Darwen Tidy, a new group on Facebook, which he says ‘ has done some great work to mobilise and motivate local people to action’.

His report also praises the BT Corporate volunteer programme where council environment officers have worked with the firm’s 100 staff in the Blackburn office to engage them in volunteer initiatives.

All BT staff can spend three working days a year taking part in local volunteer initiatives, as part of their corporate social responsibility programme.