MEIRIONNYDD schoolchildren are doing their bit to clean up the streets and parks of Blaenau Ffestiniog.

When children at Ysgol Tanygrisiau recently began to find dog mess on paths and pavements near their school they decided to do something about it.

The pupils were also eager to tackle the littering problem around their community, so they called in Gwynedd Council’s Tidy Towns officer through Blaenau’s Dref Werdd initiative, to come and help them with their campaign.

Jonathan Neale had visited the school last year with the Tidy Towns Roadshow, which over the past three years has provided local environment-themed entertainment in the county’s schools. The children at Tanygrisiau were very keen to put their energies to good use by designing posters to highlight the environmental problems in the village.

Local Gwynedd councillor Annwen Daniels said: “The children at Ysgol Tanygrisiau know what they want when it comes to their local area – a safe and clean environment to play in and discover. It’s great that they have spoken out on the litter and dog mess problems. Tanygrisiau is a fantastic playground for children, so why should they have to put up with dog mess and litter?”

Gwynedd Council’s Highways and Municipal Cabinet member, Cllr Gareth Wyn Griffith, said: “These posters are really colourful and get the message across in a way that should get us thinking a little more about what kind of environment we want our kids to grow up in. Tanygrisiau’s landscape is both historic and dramatic and it must be a great place to grow up – so let’s help its children make it clean and tidy.”See this week's north editions for the full story, in shops and online now