Challenge to clean up coast in one day

The Spark Foundation and the Council are planning on cleaning up the whole of Porirua’s coastline in one day.

“We’re going to do a clean sweep of 48km of coast in one day, it’s ambitious but achievable,” Mayor Nick Leggett said.

For the past two years a group of Spark people in Wellington have used their annual paid volunteer day to clean up the Miramar Peninsula.

This year they are teaming with Mayor Leggett, who is on the Spark Foundation Board, and Porirua City Council for the first ever Amazing Coastal Challenge clean-up.

Colin Brown, GM of Networks at Spark Connect, will lead the day.

Local Porirua MP Kris Faafoi will also join the team of 150 volunteers, made up of mostly Spark staff as well as a few family and friends.

The clean-up will happen tomorrow from mid-morning to mid-afternoon, based around low tide. There are two main areas that the volunteers will focus on:

· Area 1 which is from Pukerua Bay all the way down to Mana Esplanade

· Area 2 which is around the coast from Porirua Harbour to Titahi Bay

"We've set an audacious goal with the Porirua City Council to do a complete clean-up of the 48km of the coast line, harbour and estuaries of Porirua,” Mr Brown said.

“This will be the first time this has ever been done and the council want to weigh and survey the rubbish collected to gain useful insight into how they manage their coastline. It's a fantastic opportunity to make a real difference in the local community and for our coastline.”

“Personally I love a challenge and so I'm really keen to get a big group together and blitz the area."

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