STAFF from Good Energy did their bit for Chippenham and leant a hand by taking part in a litter picking campaign which has been running throughout the town over the last month.

The Love Chippenham campaign, launched by anti-litter group Off the Ground, has been encouraging people to pick up any litter they see and persuading people not to drop it in the first place.

Employees from the renewable energy firm in Chippenham helped pick up litter in Monkton Park on Friday (March 3) during their lunch break.

“Friday was fabulous, we must have had about 15 volunteers who turned up which was great,” said Beverly Walker, from Off the Ground.

“They were really enthusiastic but quite shocked how much was there as once you start to look again you find more.”

Juliet Davenport, founder and chief executive of Good Energy, said: “We’re lucky to have such a lovely park on our doorstep, so we thought it was only right to help keep it that way.

"So many of our staff enjoy the park, for a lunchtime stroll in the fresh air or even as an outdoor meeting space, so they leapt at the chance to show it a bit of love.”

She added “I really wanted to be there – it’s really important to show how proud we are of our local Chippenham community.”

Over the past several weeks, the Love Chippenham campaign has trialled new ways of tackling litter including a residential bin scheme and superbin which can store litter picking equipment as well as rubbish.

There was also a bingo litter picking game, where people had to find landmarks in the town and in the process pick up rubbish with winners receiving tickets to the Neeld, local cinema and Prezzo.

“The residential bin scheme has the potential to be very successful because people just seem to think it’s a great solution to a problem that isn’t going to go away,” added Mrs Walker.

“We’re still in the process of having the area surveyed so it will be a little while to see if people are doing it but it needs to become a social norm.

A group litter pick was also held on Saturday to signify the end of the Love Chippenham campaign and coincide with the Great British Spring Clean which was taking place nationally.

Plans are now in place to launch Where’s Your Patch?, allowing people to take ownership of where they live by letting them say which areas they are keeping clean via an online map.