The Mayor of Spelthorne, Cllr Colin Barnard, and Mayoress joined the Spelthorne Litter Pickers for a litter pick last month at Laleham Riverside.
The litter pick saw eight bags collected, which in-cluded items such as take-away boxes, clothes, a plastic fender and sofa cushions despite there being bins in the area to utilise. At the river’s edge, large amounts of plastic pollution were collected as well as a discarded buoy and rope, which could have caused injury to wildlife.
The Mayor spoke with the co-founders of Spelthorne Litter Pickers, Shirley and Kelly, about the benefits of litter picking, including encouraging others, walking with a purpose and having pride in where you live. The group so far has over 380 members and in 11 weeks have dedicated over 700 hours to litter pick-ing and have collected an incredible 485 bags of rubbish and 101 bags of recycling.
Cllr Barnard said: “It was a privilege to join the Spelthorne Litter Pickers and I want to pay tribute to Shirley and Kelly for organ-ising the various picks that have taken place across our Borough. It is wonderful to see so many people, espe-cially those in the younger generation, taking pride in their local area and caring about their community. We all have a part to play in creating a cleaner, greener Spelthorne. The easiest thing we can all do is by disposing of litter respon-sibly in the bins outside, or by taking it home with you. I would, however, encourage you to go further towards helping your community by joining groups like Spelthorne Litter Pick-ers or organising your own litter pick. If you wish to organise your own pick, the Council will support your efforts so please get in touch.”
Shirley Lunn, Chairperson of Spelthorne Lit-ter Pickers added: ‘There is no doubt we can make a difference to our local area – please continue to pick litter and encourage friends and neighbours to join us – be the change!”.
The Council have been running a #NoRubbishExcuses campaign, seeking to deter individuals from leaving litter and new signage has been installed at parks across the Borough. Many local shops are also support-ing the campaign as well as Visit Staines, Two Rivers, The Elmsleigh Centre and Mac-Donald’s. As part of the campaign The Mayor has also honoured a further 14 more children as litter heroes for their work in tidying up the Borough which brings the total roll of honour to 46.