An army of litter pickers spruced up parts of Farnham town centre plus beauty spots such as Gostrey Meadow and Riverside on Saturday (12 June) as part of Keep Britain Tidy’s Big Spring Clean and Farnham in Bloom’s activities to enhance public spaces.

“We had a great team of volunteers of all ages working together to tidy up some of the most well used parts of the town. Farnham Town Council provided the equipment of litter picking tools and refuse sacks, enabling our fabulous volunteers to get to work,” says Councillor Sally Dickson, Lead Member for Farnham in Bloom. “While it is always disappointing to see the amount of litter that people have not disposed of properly, it is heartening to know that others care enough to give up their time to volunteer in our litter picks.”

Families, groups of friends and colleagues – assisted by the Mayor of Farnham – filled sacks with items as diverse as flip flops, food packaging and even discarded items of clothing.

Farnham Town Council invited volunteers to select a time slot and location in advance in which to carry out their litter picking and arranged for filled sacks to be disposed of properly.

Together the teams filled around 20 sacks, resulting in a noticeable improvement to public spaces. 

These community-wide litter picks build on the work done by individuals around the town who, on a weekly basis, collect rubbish to improve the town for others. 

Litter picks and tackling grot spots are important contributions to Farnham’s In Bloom activities. As well as making town and the countryside more attractive, Keep Britain Tidy has highlighted how disposing of litter prevents death and injury to wildlife and keeps plastics and other substances out of the soil and waterways.