Baglady comes to Suffolk

Does anybody recognise this lady?  Perhaps not.  So let me introduce her as Shirley Lewis, veteran environmental campaigner from Northern Ireland.  If you are still drawing a blank, here's another photo that might help, especially for anyone who might have been in Bury St Edmunds today...when Shirley Lewis visited the town in her alter ego as Baglady.

Baglady is a well-known campaigner in Northern Ireland and works with schools and campaigners to promote the idea of living ASAP (as sustainably as possible), encouraging children and adults to take up pledges to do something positive about the environment.   Reducing waste is one of her key priorities and with the news of the huge anti-litter campaign that's currently taking place as well as the Seven Suffolk Streets project focusing on waste, she thought she'd visit the county to find out more.

And here she is making her grand entrance into Bury St Edmunds.

Of course with an outfit like that, it was no surprise that Baglady attracted quite a bit of attention during her official walkabout in the town centre, especially as it was market day.

She expected a few funny looks - and there were plenty - but as ever her personality shone through and she received a warm welcome from many local residents, including Sheila and Arthur from Thurston, who are regular listeners of BBC Radio Suffolk's Mark Murphy breakfast show and had heard her talking to Mark on his show earlier this morning.

And our local community officers were also pleased to have a chat. 

Apparently we'd missed the the Chief Constable by minutes, otherwise we could have got him in the shot too, which would have been great as Suffolk police are really behind the anti-litter campaign this year, aiming to tackle other anti-social behaviour such as grafitti and fly-tipping.

And with news of a  Baglady in town, it can't escape the attention of the local press.  It was fabulous that Laura and Roger from the Bury Free Press were keen to drop into the market for an interview. 

And that's how I left things, with Badlady going for a photoshoot with the photographer and a proposition to take him for coffee, while I disappeared out of the cold to write up this blogpost.

So now this is done, I'd better nip back out into the cold afternoon to see if I can retrieve Baglady from her official walkabout and find somewhere for a nice spot of lunch.

I think she'll be easy to spot, don't you? 

To find out more about the work of Baglady, aka Shirley Lewis, visit www.bagladyproductions.org.

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