06-06-2025
Dalbeattie Primary pupils clean up in Spring Clean Scotland competition
The youngsters were the winners of the Litter League Scotland South after collecting 37 bags of rubbish.
Dalbeattie Primary pupils have cleaned up in a competition.
The youngsters were the winners of the Litter League Scotland South, part of this year's Spring Clean Scotland campaign.
Over the course of a month, 23 pupils collected 37 bags of litter, meaning the school came top of the Keep Scotland Beautiful campaign.
Depute head teacher, Alex Howie, said: 'We are really proud of our families and their young people in Dalbeattie who gave up their own time to make this possible.
'Everyone who took part did a great job seeking out the areas which most needed tidied. In particular we would also like to mention the help of Dalbeattie Scouts, The Rotakids and the Rotary Club, along with our eco committee.
'This is the icing on the cake of our recent ninth Eco flag award.'
Across Scotland, nearly 50,000 bags of litter were picked up during Spring Clean Scotland, which ran from March 21 to April 21.
And Dumfries and Galloway Council's Darren Burns was recognised for his efforts with a #SpringCleanScotland Heroes award.
Chair of the council's education, skills and community wellbeing committee, Councillor Maureen Johnstone, said: 'I'm delighted that our council provides local co-ordination the national Keep Scotland Beautiful Spring Clean campaign.
'Once again one of our schools has won the Litter League award for the Scotland South region, so I extend a huge congratulations to the pupils, staff and community of Dalbeattie Primary School.
'I am further delighted that our lead officer for the Spring Clean campaign in Dumfries and Galloway, Darren Burns, has received the Keep Scotland Beautiful Spring Clean Scotland Hero Award for his significant contribution the Spring Clean campaign.
'For the past three years, Darren has co-ordinated the Spring Clean campaign, with invaluable support from our council's community assets, community safety, environmental health, ward working and youth work teams.
'However, we all know that the real success of the campaign lies with the thousands of dedicated volunteers who take part each year, cleaning up our pavements, parks, beaches and beyond. This year alone, we hosted 424 events with 9,476 volunteers collecting 1,315 bags of rubbish. We provided litter-picking kits and ensured every bag was collected by our community assets team.
'The volunteers' commitment to keeping our communities clean and beautiful is nothing short of inspiring. My heartfelt thanks go to each and every one of them.'
Chief Executive at Keep Scotland Beautiful added: 'We know there is a litter emergency in Scotland, but we also know there are people in every community across the country who are determined to take action and deal with the issue.
'Spring Clean Scotland gives us an opportunity to spearhead a collective effort to make a noticeable difference, inspiring as many people as possible to help clean up Scotland and we thank Darren for his brilliant efforts.
'I'm so impressed to see that more than half of our volunteers this year were young people. It's so inspiring to see the younger generation already taking notice and action of the litter issue in their communities. Congratulations to Dalbeattie Primary School for their Litter League win.'
