North Down and Ards retailers bag up rubbish to keep communities clean

Nineteen retailers operating across the area of North Down and Ards have collected a whopping 234 bags of rubbish from some of the area’s most popular spots, as well as the neighbourhoods in which they operate.

Many of the Bangor and Crawfordsburn stores opted to help clean up Crawfordsburn Country Park after the recent good weather brought thousands of visitors to the Park and Helen’s Bay beach, and left with 155 bags of rubbish between them. Stores such as EUROSPAR Kinnegar in Holywood, EUROSPAR Ashbury and SPAR Hightrees in Donaghadee focused their efforts on their local neighbourhoods, while in Newtownards, SPAR Movilla lifted eight bags from the Bowtown Estate and SPAR Ballyholme and EUROSPAR Gransha took away 21 bags of rubbish from Ballyholme Beach.

North Down and Ards boasted the highest number of stores by area to be involved in the initiative, with 19 out of a total of 175 stores making the effort to complete a clean-up of their local areas in recent months.

Litter picks have been taking place in almost every town and neighbourhood in Northern Ireland, from Kilkeel to Linaskea, and Limavady to Donaghadee after Henderson Group, which owns the SPAR,

EUROSPAR and ViVO brands in Northern Ireland, invested in kits for each store.

The kits include large bin bags, pickers, high visibility vests and gloves, as well as in-store signage to encourage shoppers to use the bins provided both inside and outside stores. The signage is dotted throughout stores, but prominently displayed beside high litter generating products such as plastic bottles, to continue to remind shoppers to dispose of their waste appropriately.

The early success of the campaign, which has seen retail teams returning 1,626 bags to be disposed of correctly, will see stores continue to help clean up their communities regularly, with focus events taking place annually.

Barista Bar, the retail coffee brand which is available in over 400 SPAR, EUROSPAR and ViVO branded stores in Northern Ireland has committed to numerous litter picks throughout Northern Ireland, in efforts to reduce the number of single use cups that are not disposed of correctly.

For more information on SPAR NI’s Keep Communities Tidy campaign, and for a breakdown of stores and the areas they helped clean up, click here.

Enjoy a safe BBQ in North Down this summer!

Almost half (45%) of barbecue-goers in the Ards and North Down Borough Council area have been served raw or undercooked barbecue meat like burgers, chicken, and sausages and left it untouched due to the risk of food poisoning, according to a new study by safefood.

safefood conducted the survey of 300 adults across Northern Ireland to shed light on the region’s barbecue cooking habits as local shoppers welcomed this year’s barbecue season by spending an extra £2m on barbecue meats, despite grocery inflation rising to 16.1%.

The research also discovered that two-thirds of home barbecue chefs were unaware of the correct temperature required to ensure barbecue meats were cooked and safe-to-eat.

Worryingly, it also found that 5% of home barbecue chefs purely relied on taste to check if barbecue meat is cooked.

Almost a third (30%) of people say they use a meat thermometer to measure the internal temperature of cooked barbecue meats

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These have encouraged many insects to set up home here, including bumblebees, and we have had at least ten species of nesting birds. Hedgehogs roam at night and we even have had a visit by a badger; not bad for suburban east Bangor”.

How was that achieved?

“First, none of it would have been possible without the active encouragement and support of Alpha Housing management, like burgers, chicken, and sausages so they can determine whether it’s safe to eat before serving to guests.

In response to the increased spend on barbecue meats and to minimise risk of food poisoning and food waste from raw or undercooked barbecue meats, safefood is urging local home barbecue chefs to prioritise food safety this summer.

The all-island body is urging people to use a meat thermometer and take the guess work out of cooking barbecue meats by checking burgers, chicken, kebabs, and sausages are cooked to 75 degrees Celsius.

Dr Gary Kearney, Interim CEO at safefood, “With almost half of barbecuegoers in the Ards and North Down Borough Council area which not only invested in new plants, but changed to more nature-friendly grounds maintenance, including no-mow areas and rewilded margins and corners, not just for us but at all its other schemes. One of their most important decisions was to rule out the use of herbicides other than for invasive species.

Wildlife revival and poisonous chemicals don’t mix”.

“We now have about 200 square feet of planters dedicated solely to native wildflowers, but having been offered raw or undercooked meat, it is crucial that home barbecue chefs across Ards and North Down Borough Council eliminate any guesswork and avert any potential barbecue food poisoning mishaps this summer.”

“It’s evident that barbecuing is immensely popular here during the Summer, so it’s important that we all prioritise good food safety practices when grilling barbecue meats.

“For meats like burgers, sausages, chicken, and kebabs, using a meat thermometer adds that extra layer of reassurance. Take the meat off the heat, pop the meat thermometer into the thickest part of the meat and when it reaches 75 degrees Celsius, it’s cooked and ready to eat.

“If you don’t own a meat these are complemented by crab apples, hollies and willows, indeed, anything which is good for insects, including nonnative plants such as buddleia and valerian which are attractive to pollinators, the bees, butterflies, moths and so on”.

“The birds and other animals are attracted here by the abundance of insects and other invertebrates, but they also need water and places to shelter and nest, so we have bird baths and ground-level water bowls, many bird