Park Street litter pickers are bagging it up to keep streets free of rubbish

More than 40 bags of rubbish were collected in two hours during a recent community litter picking venture.

The Park Street Pickers, a group of local people aged from children to pensioners, gathered to collect litter in Park Street, Chiswell Green and Bricket Wood.

Formed in 2008, the community litter picking group organise monthly litter picks a well as rubbish collecting for national movements, such as the Clean for the Queen campaign.

Youngsters from the Redbourn Priory Beavers and their leader Katherine Crowley joined the team as part of their Blue Peter Environmental Badge during their Sunday session.

Organiser Peter Tiffany, 62, of Minister Court in Frogmore, said: “Litter blights our environment and everyone hates to see it, but perhaps as a result of the move towards fast food, more packaging and snacking on the move, litter is on the increase.

“Litter can take years to biodegrade, a plastic bottle for instance takes 450 years and a crisp packed can hang around for 200 years. While we can all turn our heads away and hope the council will clean up, litter has its victims.

“A few people have begun to say we can do something about it, allowing the council to spend less of its money on street cleaning.”

As well as organising group litter picking sessions, the Park Street Pickers have also equipped others with bags, hoops and litter pickers so that they can clean up an area of their own choosing.

Peter said the groups of people find it very rewarding, even picking up money sometimes. He continued: “We believe it’s about time the local authorities took the step towards enforcing fixed penalty fines on those who drop litter or allow their dogs to foul and then don’t pick up afterwards.”