What a lovely Idea
 

I notice that the Huncoat Youth Project, which is so concerned with raising the aspirations of the youth of the Within Grove area held a fashion show the other day. How Nice.

Apparently the children were encouraged to go out and collect items of litter off the streets, bring them back to the projects HQ and make clothes out of them, which they then were encouraged to wear in the fashion show.

Very green, that. Very safe and hygenic. Would you let your children dress up in litter?

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very strange idea! wonder what genius dreamt that one up! also wonder how many parents actually encouraged their kids to do it.

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Whith the state Within Grove is in I am suprised thety didnt find more than litter lying around. As for the idea then it must have been some seriously over paid seriously under worked social services climber.

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PMSL erm suppose they have to do something to get the area involved....... good job nobody here reads minds or else i'd be banned for life pmsl

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Rindy's fashion comment of the week-

There will be no critisism of our Mayor this week please, as in the Observer she looked very elegant and well groomed in an eau de nil coloured suit.

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I thought she looked as though she was auditioning for the part of Queen Victoria. Though she would probably have more success auditioning for a part in Disney's Fantasia. Can you guess which part? Go on have a guess!

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Lol, I hated that film and I can only remember Micky Mouse as the sorcerer's apprentice, and he had a full length red coat dress and a pointed hat, so it can't be him.

Trust me A-b, with her hair back, a smart suit, subtle makeup and discreet pearl earrings, she could give the fragrant Duchess of Kent a run for her money in the elegance stakes.

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The Duchess of Kent??? What are you on? Or is the "medicinal" eight pints distorting your vision?

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Sunday afternoon of course, it's Acidic-babs time for a little Gordon's! ;)

Next thing you'll be in the chatroom giggling and flirting again!!!!

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Who is the Duchess of Kent? Never heard of a model with that name, but there is a prissy alloof so and so with that name.

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Errm, I think you'll find that Duchesses are allowed to be prissy and aloof, especially Royal Duchesses, it's in the job description.

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The Duchess of Kent is that good Northern lass, the former Katherine Worsley and who presents the ladie's trophy at Wimbledon, she also wears combat trousers and trainers.

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she is one of the nice duchesses...and very pretty.. would rather have her anyday than that smug overbearing freeloader.. princess micheal

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Appologies gang I am mixing here up with Princess Michael of Kent (princess pushy).

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No.

I wouldn't object to them designing outfits made from binbags or carrier bags etc if they were unused clean ones.

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Not sure why you've got a problem with this -

It gives the kids something to do (Huncoat is in a bit of a mess with youth problems).
It teaches them something creative and encourages them to think about litter instead of dropping more.
It was fun.
It tidies up the area (Huncoat is in a bit of a mess full stop).

I wouldn't have a problem with this whatsoever as long as the litter was cleaned which I'm pretty sure it would have been.

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Now theres a novel idea cleaned litter..........I wish I could start again, be about 21 yrs old and start a project, every looney idea I could think of then go to some council, oh lets say Hydnburn or Burnley and sell them on it, I would call it Art and make sure that, A . Kids were involved, B. It would prick a social conscience (litter, graffitti, race etc ) C. Let them know if they didn't do it someone else would making them look foolish. D. Charge the council (tax payers) an exorbanent amount, (we just can't do it on the cheap you know) E. Sit back and rack in the profits.
I would also think up a cool name for it like Rastafarian and Asian underwater Birthing Project, Notice keeping the main points intact, Kids, Social conscience etc. I would be a millionaire before I knew it.
There must be some kids out there who could get this done, tell them your a minority and need funds.

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But what harm is it actually doing?

Plus, I don't know for sure but I'll be that the Council haven't actually paid for it themselves but have got some funding from somewhere else to do it. I still can't see the problem.

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No problem at all Gayle. I suppose that you would also have no objection to opening up Whinney Hill tip as an adventure playground! Well, it keeps the little darlings off the streets.

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actualy that would be a good idea since so many kids these days enjoy smashing bottles and making a tip of the streets lol

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I'm not saying that at all A-B - just saying I can't see a problem with this project. It seems pretty harmless, quite creative and not hurting anyone. I know you think I'm a woolly liberal sometimes but if we didn't have things like this think what the alternatives would be - kids messing around during school holidays, drinking, smoking, getting ASBOs etc. This is just a simple holiday fun project. Stop being so grumpy!

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I do see a problem Gayle. It may wll be creative but I question whether it is harmless and it could quite possibly have hurt the children involved if what A-b said is correct.

Whether or not this litter was cleaned (and I can't help wondering how that would or could have been done) the children were actually encouraged to go around picking up filthy rubbish that had more than likely been wee'ed all over by cats and dogs, could have paper hankies full of goodness knows what germs amongst it, not to mention the danger of there being used syringes dumped by drug addicts and the very real danger of contracting AIDS. It wasn't sterile but filthy junk that the kids had been sent out onto the streets to pick up!?!

I don't know about other mums but I spent a lot of time when my children were younger telling them NOT to touch anything that had been dropped in the street and to leave such dirty things as "you don't know where that's been" and here they are being encouraged to collect the disgusting stuff and not only make clothing out of it but to actually wear it. They will now feel encouraged to go scavenging amongst other disgusting decaying filth and do the same thing in their own spare time. Not the healthiest of ways to find recreation.

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Who said anything about harm, who actually gives a ....... about whos going to participate, the thing is it is bloody stupid and no matter how much of a woolly liberal you are if you think this is good for kids then dress your kids in rubbish, cleaned of course, after they have been and picked it up off the streets of Huncoat and ask for thier reaction.
Of course the council paid, if they apply for funding they have to wait for it but the Arty Fartys who put it on need paying so pay and hope the funding arrives.

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The photographs in the Observer showed the rubbish looking fairly clean.

I don't see the problem here either, it apparently kept the children occupied and amused.

I once made a wedding dress out of white bin bags and it was featured on Granada television.

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think willow has a point,i brought mine up by saying (put that down you don,t know where its been)

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It doesn't look like they were making sheath dresses out of used prophylactics or anything truly yukky, but things that could be safely cleaned and recycled, to be turned into something more creative.

If children are told never to touch 'dirty' littter, they will never pick anything up. I am always picking other people's rubbish up if I see a waste bin near by.

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Willow, I understand your concerns and I tell my kids not to pick up any old rubbish off the street but on this occasion they were picking up reusable items. I understand that some things might have germs on them but we're all capable of washing our hands after touching something nasty and I'm quite sure that hands were washed whilst the rubbish was being cleaned.

As for the money - funding is never given retrospectively so quite simply the project would not have been run if the money hadn't been received in the first place.

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Anyone and I mean Anyone, that is stupid enough to encourage children to pick up rubbish off the street without wearing the appropriate Health and Safety clothing such as a thick pair of industrial gloves should be locked up and the key thrown away and they should never, ever be allowed near children again!

Why? I hear you ask, because you thick begger besides what dogs and cats can deposit on these items of rubbish the dibilitating diseases that can be spread to the little lovelies from the rats and mice that are common on our streets can be seen in this report:-

INFECTIOUS DISEASES OF MICE AND RATS

A little bit of dirt doesn't do children any harm but exposure to this
by so called caring adults just seems to be criminal to me and I ask no, beg such fools to keep
as far away from my younger relations as possible!

Re: What a lovely Idea
 

instead of giving criminals satelite tv etc maybe we could start the chain gang system like in american and let convics do all the crappy jobs

just a thought

not wanting to go off topic but there are much better candidtaes for doing dirty work

back on topic now

when i was a kid i once dropped a sweetie wrapper on the floor and was poked in the back and when i turned around it was a police man who told me to pick up my wrapper plus 10 more pieces of litter as a way of making it sink in that what i did was wrong

nowadays if a policeman was to do that he would be done for assault and endangering a child or somthing plus the endless amount of paperwork he would have to fill in just for simply stopping somone

i think its a good idea as long as the children are given safety gloves so they dont have to pick up trash with their bare hands

i dunno how to explain it propper but if kids work hard to tidy an area themselves they are less likely to want to see it messed up

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OMG I remember that!!!

I would have no prob with my kids doing this with the correct safety gear has been mentioned. Come on has anyone wondered why allergies are so prevelant nowadays cos we're practically bringing our children up in sterile conditions!!

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I always knew you would marry trash.

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Its v true is that Red, been watching them lil angels series n that Dr Tania barker [sp] says a lil dirt is actually more healthy than being spotless n most conditions being illness n psychological, like eating probs in tots n shows that its learnt behaviour from parents about being scared to be dirty cos the parent is always with cloth to wipe em down.

Well the ole sayin goes a mucky child is a healthy child, its how our bodies become immune to things by being in contact - altho going too much on the other side of the coin has its harm to - its all about balance:)

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Hit nail on head there!!!

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I have in the past got my children to pick up litter outside our house, but closely supervised by me. I do agree that they should pick up litter but mainly their own which should not of course be dropped in the first instance. I draw the line at picking up lots of the stuff for a couple of reasons.............the health and safety of course, and the fact of I am always telling them I refuse to pick up things behind them so why should I encourage them to pick up other peoples rubbish. We should practice what we preach. Obviously a few crisp wrappers outside your house is ok because you want your home to be clean & litter free, but going all out to clean up an area because of other people's and the local council's incompetence is in my opinion not on.

A better way to involve the children would be for the council to pick up the rubbish and the children are able to see some sort of result from all the recycling that is done in our area. Not sure what but there must be some end result from all the recycling that could benefit the local children who are encouraged to recycle............maybe a park that has play equipment made from recycled refuse.

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well yeh its all about common sence

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I presume, but don't know, that all health and safety procedures would have been followed, as they are for most gatherings, otherwise they would haven't have been able to get public liability insurance which you need, even for community arts groups.

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I don't know either Garinda, but I'm pretty sure that's right. There's no way it would have been allowed to go ahead without health and safety laying the law down.

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What a load of rubbish! Someone slipped through the net! No way should children these days be allowed to collect rubbish, it's bad enough for the Refuse collector! (Oh! I say am I becoming P.C.? I mean the bin man).