On Saturday, a team of 29 enthusiastic volunteers spent the afternoon giving their village a thorough spring clean.
Dressed in high-vis and armed with litter pickers, the group of children and adults collected and filled several large rubbish bags with discarded bottles, cans, wrappers, cardboard, plastic and polystyrene around Kingswood, Wotton-under-Edge.
Sian Blackham, who organised the event, said: “This is the second litter pick I’ve organised in the village. Once again, I was blown away by the support of all the volunteers and how hard they all worked. We have such a wonderful sense of community here.”
Henry, aged six, who was awarded a £10 book token as prize for being top rubbish collector, said: “There’s way too much litter in the world. It was fun making the village clean and tidy. I feel proud, we did a good job!”
Holly Simkiss from Kingswood, who took part and is standing as a Liberal Democrat candidate in the Stroud District Council election, said: “The litter pick is important, we need to take pride in where we live. I’m part of this community and I care passionately about the place.
“Fantastically, there’s far less litter than I thought there was going to be.”
The litter pick equipment was loaned to the group by Stroud District Council.