Litter-pickers encourage others to take pride in the community

Users of a charity service completed a litter pick to tidy an area close to where they are based.

The ladies’ group at Reach Learning Disability, which meets at Hawtonville Community Centre, Newark, was given equipment, including litter pickers and gloves, by Newark and Sherwood District Council.

Vickie Ward, deputy centre manager, said: "It tied in with the council’s Cleaner, Safer and Greener campaign.

"The service users wanted to do it to take pride in the area and the community.

"A lot of them were worried about moving when we first came here, but now they have met the local community they are taking pride in the area and want to keep it clean.

"Once an area is clean people tend to take more pride in it, which, hopefully, will be the case."

The service users frequently go for walks around the area and said it was important to keep it clean.

One of them, Lorraine Harvey, said: "We are making it much cleaner. If people see us doing it, it might make them to do it too — and then there would not be as much litter."

Kirsty Wells, another service user, said: "We want to keep the area clean and tidy, and help to stop other people littering."