by Gill Hudson
A woman came up to me at a village hall meeting and said: “I recognise you. I keep seeing you picking litter up along the footpath leading down to the shops. I’m glad I’m not the only one who does that. What a mess some people leave.” June and I obviously bonded immediately! “I really want to do something about this”, I replied. “What do you think about organising a monthly litter pick?” Later that afternoon June emailed me. She’d come up with a brilliant name: Holyport Litterati. It was just the start we needed.
Our first monthly session was in February this year [2018], with a turnout of around 15. The local paper came along to mark the event and we collected over a dozen bags of rubbish along just a couple of stretches of road and a footpath. We were all appalled! Since then, however, the amount of litter we find each month has dropped off quite noticeably – partly because the less litter is visible, the less likely people are to drop any; and partly because we’re all much more motivated to keep picking up litter individually between litter picks because we know that others are doing it too!
We now have around 30 regulars we can call on. RBWM provided some litter-pickers and protective gloves to get us started. We also got some funding from the Maidenhead Lions to pay for extra litter picking kit.
Our next step is to get local schools on board and encourage them to “adopt” a street and help keep it litter free.
Fancy starting a group in your area? Please contact us via email, just click here!
The Holyport Litterati meet on the first Sunday of every month at 11am by the war memorial on the Green.
