Around 100 council staff, councillors and community volunteers joined forces for a mass clean-up of the riverside walkway in Palmerston North on Friday.
Equipped with gloves and rubbish bags the team, largely made up of staff from Horizons Regional and Palmerston North City Councils scoured the walkway from their starting point in Dittmer Drive, removing rubbish along the way.
The clean-up was the first in a series of community events coordinated around the launch of the new Manawatū River Leaders’ Forum Action Plan next week.
Council chief executives Paddy Clifford and Michael McCartney said both councils have put a lot of effort into managing the river and its banks and the river clean-up was a great extension of that work.
“We take a lot of pride in the work in and around the river to create an environment that’s safe, accessible and provides recreational opportunities for our community,” Mr Clifford said.
“Next week we’ll be talking to residents about options for the He Ara Kotahi shared pathway project, linking Linton with Palmerston North, and this clean-up is a nice chance for our staff to show pride in the work that we do.”
Both councils are signatories to the Manawatū River Leaders’ Accord and have contributed actions to the new Action Plan.
