STREETS AHEAD supporters have been out in force recently backing our campaign to improve the city for all.

Our initiative – generously supported by City Charitable Trust, Glasgow City Council, Scottish Fire and Rescue and City Building – is gearing up for its annual awards ceremony in June.

But enthusiastic growers, gardeners and litter pickers are still working hard all over the city to improve their streets, parks and gardens.

ANN FOTHERINGHAM catches up with some of the latest Streets Ahead projects on the go. If you have a community project you’d like to tell us about, email streetsahead@heraldandtimes.co.uk or call 0141 302 6555.

BUTTERFLY GARDEN

THE hardworking volunteers behind an innovative community art project are hoping their efforts will bring butterflies back to Glasgow.

The team at Friends of Kelvindale Railway Station is have been working closely with Keep Scotland Beautiful, Butterfly Conservation Scotland, Glasgow City Council Environmental Task Force and Volunteering Matters Action Earth project to create a butterfly garden at the station.

Maryhill Tesco staff also came along to plant flowers and shrubs needed to attract caterpillars, butterflies and moths.

The station, which created its own art gallery recently, also unveiled a public information board to help commuters identify and support native butterflies.

It was designed by volunteer Melodie Emre, a final year student at the University of Glasgow.

Chairperson Helen Ntabeni explained: “Friends of Kelvindale Railway Station are carrying out butterfly themed projects because of the alarming decrease – 70 per cent - in butterfly numbers over the last decade.

“We decided to do all we can to reverse this so that future generations can enjoy the sight of our beautiful butterflies.”

The group also received support from ScotRail’s Biodiversity Fund Award, which is designed to improve and protect Scotland’s natural environment.

Helen adds: “We want to see the station become an awareness raising and information distribution point, encouraging gardeners to include native wildflowers in their gardens which will give our butterflies as wide an area as possible to live within.

“The information board contains pictures of Glasgow’s butterflies and their main food source to aid the public with identification.”

Those keen to support butterfly habitats and species can try out a year’s free membership of Butterfly Conservation if they sign up throughout May 2017.

MARYHILL LITTER PICK

LONGTIME Streets Ahead supporters and former awardwinners McDonalds joined forces with the City Council’s mighty Environmental Task Force for a litter pick on Maryhill Road.

Guest of honour Kingsley, the Partick Thistle Football Club mascot, joined in the fun, along with children from Primrose Day Nursery and staff from Tesco and the Wise Group.

Ryan Noble of Glasgow’s Environmental Task Force, who take away the bags of rubbish collected by the volunteers, said: “It is great to see staff from local businesses pitching in and working in partnership with the communities they trade in.

“It was a great event – the weather was amazing and around 20 people took part. We collected loads of litter. It’s a shame that thoughtless folk drop rubbish in the first place but events like this show there are a lot of people who do really care about their local area.”

Meltem Kesal of The Wise Group added: “It was a good event and nice to see lots of different people coming together to take part. We collected about seven big bin bags of rubbish.”

WILD ABOUT SCOTLAND

Pupils from six Glasgow primary schools discovered all about the city’s marvellous minibeasts, bug hotel-building and wildflower seed-sowing this week.

The children from Crawford Dyke, Bowhouse, Antonine, Airth, Carmunnock and King’s Park primaries visited the popular Wild about Scotland education bus when it came to Glasgow Science Centre recently.

The programme has been developed by the Royal Zoological Society for Scotland (RZSS) and Clydesdale Bank to help spread awareness of conservation.

Visitors took part in a variety of interactive and fun sessions which focused on Scottish native species, their habitats and environments. In total, almost 200 P1 and P2 pupils took part.

The bus was also open to members of the public keen to find out about Scotland’s amazing wildlife.

Barbara Smith, CEO of the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, said: “Conservation through education is one of the founding principles behind the Society and remains one of our key goals to this day.

“Our mobile education bus has had a huge impact across the length and breadth of Scotland. It is vital that we reach out to teach young people about conservation work and the species on their own doorstep. This outreach project makes up a significant part of RZSS’s work and we hope to continue with this, and other similar projects, for the foreseeable future.”

Since its first trip in 2014, more than 20,000 people have experienced the Wild about Scotland bus, including more than 1500 from the Glasgow area.