A NEW BBC One TV show featuring ideas for a new community project in Barry aired earlier this week, with the winner receiving more than £500 in funding to make their idea a reality.

The second episode of ‘Let’s Get a Good Thing Going’ was filmed in Barry’s Memo Hall last month, giving local people a platform to air their ideas to a live audience.

Presented by host Kevin Duala, the programme features ideas from four Barry locals: Sean Molino proposed running free family fitness sessions to educate people on health and nutrition, Nicky Vickery pitched the idea of a community run sensory garden, Aoife Blight had a novel idea to clean up Whitmore Bay beach and Karl-James Langford wanted to make more people aware of Barry’s forgotten archaeological treasures.

Members of the community were invited to attend a meeting at the Memo Hall, where they placed money into a pot to donate to the winning idea.

Once all ideas had been put forward and scrutinised by audience questioning, the audience voted Mrs Blight’s entry as the winning suggestion.

Her idea proposed a ‘two-minute beach clean’ board to be placed on the entrance to Whitmore Bay, to encourage beach visitors to give two minutes of their time to help clean the beach of rubbish.

The idea, she said, was based on a successful policy implemented in Cornwall in 2013, which had seen a 61 per cent reduction in beach litter since it was adopted.

The mother-of-one, who moved to Barry three years ago, said in her pitch: “Last year we made the headlines for all the wrong reasons. There was so much litter on the shore, it was like paddling in a bin. That’s not what we want to get known for.

“Let’s not leave the beach as we found it, let’s leave it a little nicer.”

The idea swayed the public vote, with Mrs Blight receiving £523.20 to go towards a special board and litter picking equipment. Island chip shop O’Shea’s have agreed to house the board overnight, and an inaugural beach clean took place a few weeks ago.

While the other ideas were unsuccessful on the night, the exposure provided by the show has also helped get their ideas off the ground.

Ms Vickery said her group, ‘Gibby Green Fingers’, had been given a huge boost as a result, while Mr Molino and Mr Langford agreed that local people were the real winners.

“There are no losers today, everybody has won. It’s been really positive,” said Mr Langford.

The show is now available to watch on BBC iPlayer.