Media centre

Monday 11 Sep 2006

NETWORK RAIL MAKES BLAENAU FFESTINIOG MORE A-TRACK-TIVE

Region & Route:

| Wales & Western: Wales & Borders

| Wales & Western

Visitors to Blaenau Ffestiniog are benefiting from Network Rail’s extensive clean-up of the disused railway track in the town centre. A nine-strong Network Rail maintenance team cleared a 260m area of carpets, shopping trolleys, household furniture and general litter.  In total, almost two tonnes of rubbish were collected. Andrew Skidmore, Network Rail’s General Manager for the area, said: “As the owner and operator of the rail network in Britain, we are one of the biggest landowners in the country.  We take our responsibilities of caring for and investing in our environment very seriously.  We were pleased to help Gwynedd Council to improve the quality of the environment in the area with this clean up, which we hope has been an enormous boost for the local community. “Sadly, Network Rail is well-practiced in clearing up fly-tipped waste.  We have a duty to local communities to remove this blight from their area – but we would rather invest our time and money renewing and enhancing the rail network.  This is why we urge anyone who has information about fly-tipping to call the British Transport police on 0800 40 50 40, and help us cut down on this costly anti-social crime.” The project forms part of the Gwynedd Council’s ‘Gwynedd Together’ initiative, promoting ‘Quality Environment’.  Dewi Rowlands, Gwynedd Council’s Strategic Director for the Environment added: “We are delighted to be working in partnership to ensure that Gwynedd’s physical environment continues to improve. “Through such important projects, we can bring together a number of public, voluntary and community organisations, as well as businesses and the wider public to work together to develop an effective plan to improve the quality of life for the people of Gwynedd.” The project is one of the priority projects of the Community Strategy for Gwynedd called Gwynedd Together. Gwynedd Together draws the main agencies and partnerships of the county to plan and act together to improve the quality of life of the people of Gwynedd. This particular project which is called ‘Quality Environment’ is coordinated by the Environment Directorate of Gwynedd Council and is being piloted in Caernarfon, south Llŷn and the Blaenau Ffestiniog areas. It aims to work with local communities towards making physical improvements within and around towns and villages, focusing on public open spaces.