Glanhau'r Barri!

Litter has long been a bugbear across our town and came up as a talking point time and time again during community engagement. The Your Place engagement alone recorded 698 residents raising concerns about litter and fly‑tipping, and the message echoed across our Barry Placemaking engagement and Long Term Towns* engagement in 2024.

In the summer of 2025, in collaboration with Barry Town Council and  Keep Wales Tidy, we launched a town-wide, summer-long litter picking push, engaging with a wide range of local groups, schools and individual residents. We invested in 200 adult and 184 children’s litter–picking kits, 30 spare adult grabbers, and 40 spare children’s grabbers. These were distributed to various community centres, schools, sports clubs and other venues. Groups and individuals were able to borrow litter–picking kits and arrange their own activity or join the friendly organised events led by Barry Town Council.

Our Youth Service jumped in too – collecting 17 bags of rubbish at their summer events. Vale Surf Life Saving Club were also busy and collected 9 bags of rubbish, and Barry Athletic Football Club collected 6 bags of rubbish. Individuals like Mike Pycroft continued their year‑round volunteering—now armed with brand new kit!

Participation came from many groups – including the Rotary Club, leisure clubs, friends and colleagues – alongside 16 primary and secondary schools, demonstrating strong community commitment to cleaner neighbourhoods and environmental learning. Across all litter picks, volunteers removed a variety of waste items, including some unusual finds such as baby electrical swings, items of clothing and metal poles! At the end of each litter-pick volunteers were asked to share with us how many people were in their group, how many hours they spent litter-picking, and how many rubbish bags were collected. The data is recorded on Keep Wales Tidy’s website (eCount Cymru) and for the summer period there were 296 volunteers, and 160 bags of rubbish and 5 bags of recycling collected. In addition, the Litter Free Zone schools in Barry have collected 22 bags of rubbish and 6 bags of recycling with 84 volunteers between the summer of 2025 up to March 2026. 

*Previous name for the Plan for Neighbourhoods programme 

 Longer Term Impact 

Nearly all the schools in Barry took part, and after the summer holidays, many of the litter picking kits were re-distributed so that more schools could continue to litter pick throughout the year. Several schools are now proudly signed up as Litter Free Zones with Keep Wales Tidy:  

• Gladstone Primary School 
• High Street Primary School 
• Romilly Primary School 
• Holton Primary school 
• Oak Field Primary School  
• Whitmore High School 

Lessons learned 

• Barry Town Council’s events allowed individuals to join group picks easily. 
• Some individuals were discouraged by the paperwork required to arrange their own litter-pick, therefore organised events were necessary. 
• Keep Wales Tidy online system allowed us to log the number of bags collected, and where.  
• Groups tended to regularly pick the same locations, creating gaps in coverage across the town. 

 Legacy 

The project has created a lasting legacy across Barry, with 16 schools, 13 community locations and 3 individuals now equipped with litter picking kits. This network of accessible resources ensures that community led environmental action can continue throughout the year. Building on this momentum, we will be coordinating a new programme of litter picks this summer, continuing the collective effort to maintain cleaner, safer neighbourhoods.