Members of the community gathered to participate in a big clean-up project on the Golden Mile, kick-starting a whole new regeneration programme for the area.
The police, city wardens, school children, residents and members of the Belgrave Business Association (BBA) were all present on Friday 18th November and joined forces to help the council spruce up the Belgrave Road Area.
Chairman of the Golden Mile Regeneration Group, City Mayor Peter Soulsby said: “It’s important that we all pull together to ensure the Golden Mile continues to be a great asset to the city”
New ‘Golden Mile’ banners were put up on the lamp posts, while other activities included a litter pick by children from Abbey Primary School, who were educated by the city wardens on environmental responsibility, as well as a steam-cleaning of the streets and graffiti removal.
Grafitti was removed from all the shop fronts during the early hours of the morning over the last two weeks from Abbey Park Road right down to Melton Road.
Karan Modha, from Anokhi Sarees who is part of the BBA, said: “This is a fantastic opportunity for businesses, residences and the community to come out and help clean the streets. We’re very proud of the area and spend more time here running our businesses then we do at home. Don’t you like a clean house? So why not have a clean street?”
Chairman of the BBA Dharmesh Lakhani added: “The cleaning will be ongoing and is not just a one-off thing, however today we are just letting people know what we are doing. There is a lot that is going to happen in the next 12 to 24 months.”
The event ran from 9am to 4pm and also included the police, housing services and the council’s waste management team giving information to the public about the services on offer in the Belgrave Neighbourhood Centre.
Cllr Manjula Sood, who has been campaigning for change in the area for the last 30 years, said: “It feels really great at last to see the council recognising the worth of this area which is unique to the whole country.”
Signs will also be issued from the motorway to direct people to the area and in the near future all the shop fronts will be given a face-lift. Cllr Ted Cassidy also shared that the council is looking at making some changes to roadworks and holding a consultation over whether to remove the Belgrave flyover.
