Keep Britain Tidy has launched a new anti-litter campaign across England. The Love Where You Live campaign began with a day of action on October 17th when thousands of volunteers took action to reduce litter and improve the appearance of the communities they live and work.
At Christie Drive, Brickfield Meadow in Croydon an area renowned for littering and fly tipping, around 100 volunteers took part in a clean up and collected a ton and a half of litter in just an hour. Litter pickers there (see picture above) were joined by Keep Britain Tidy's celebrity ambassador and TV personality Kirstie Allsopp and Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman.
The defendant attended an interview under caution at council offices on 20 October 2009. He admitted that he had hired the Renault van observed by the co-owner on 5 September. He admitted that he had deposited the sofa, armchair cushions and wardrobe at the side of Sheep House Lane. He said that he thought it would be expensive to take the items to a recycling centre and was experiencing financial hardship. He said he could not afford to pay anyone to remove the items. He said that he was aware that fly-tipping is an offence.
"By taking small actions, we can make a big difference and tackle the problem of litter that blights our beautiful country. We all have a role to play and it is not someone else's responsibility to clean up, it is everyone's responsibility," said Kirstie.
Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman said: "There is never an excuse to drop litter. It affects everyone and blights neighbourhoods. That's why I want to help people to clean up their streets and be proud of their communities. We all love something about where we live, so it's important that we all work together to improve the environment around us."
In Wigan, hundreds turned out in the town centre to take part in a big clean up. To demonstrate the scale of the challenges that confront street cleaners on a daily basis, the council suspended street cleaning in Wigan town centre for 48 hours prior to the clean up
When volunteers turned up, including many local school children (see picture above), there was litter everywhere - but not for long. In a little over 30 minutes, the streets were almost spotless after 140 bags of litter were collected - a brilliant effort by all concerned. Keep Britain Tidy staff, whose offices are based in Wigan, got in on the act and turned out in force to help with the clean up.
Other events took place at a range of places across the country including east Redditch, Broxtowe, Rivington, Ribble Valley, Nottingham, Harrogate, Paddington, Shanklin on the Isle of Wight, Mansfield and many more.