GROUPS of litter pickers from across the county were out in full force to tidy up their local streets as part of Wiltshire Council’s Great British Spring Clean.

Volunteers donned their high-vis jackets and picked up their black bin bags over the weekend and went out into their local communities to rid the area of unwanted rubbish. Acting as a follow up to the successful Clean for the Queen event last year, the Great British Spring Clean encouraged communities to take pride in their homes by cleaning up unwanted mess.

Bradford on Avon locals hit three major spots over the weekend including Poulton Skate Park and Recreation Ground, playing fields in Staverton and McKeever Bridge.

Peter Dunford, organiser of the Bradford litter picks, said: “The skate park is a well-used area by young people, there was a lot of rubbish and some broken glass so the volunteers filled six bags with rubbish. The Staverton clean up welcomed 20 volunteers and filled 20 bags which was really good.”

In Chapmanslade, 20 volunteers braved the wet weather on Saturday (March 4) and scouted round the village for any discarded waste, covering the whole village in one hour.

Phil Jefferson, chairman of the parish council, said: "Chapmanslade is a good place to live. We are a strong community and we are all exceedingly proud of our village. The fact that 20 willing volunteers turned out on such a horrible afternoon to tidy up the village is testament to this."

Selwood Housing Group was joined by over 200 children from Studley Green Primary School and members of the local community as part of a national campaign to tackle litter, on Friday (March 3).

Mrs Garbutt, Head Teacher of Studley Green Primary School said: “We are delighted to be working with Selwood Housing as part of the Great British Spring Clean. It is really important for the children to have a sense of pride in where they live and we hope that this event will give everyone a positive view of Studley Green.”

In the Westbury community area, 90 volunteers from different groups collected a haul of 95 bin bags over the course of the Great British Spring Clean weekend.

Liam Cripps, community engagement manager for Westbury, said: "We did picks in Leigh Park, Penleigh Park, Edington and more. It was a real community effort from all of the groups involved who collected a whopping 95 bags of rubbish."

The Manor School in Melksham got into teams, split into younger and older pupils, with the former scouring the school grounds whilst the latter ventured into Melksham.

Kerry Haines, head of The Manor, said: "We did it as a whole-day event on Friday, in total we got 26 bags which was a really good result. The children loved it, they even asked if we could do it as a reward-time activity in the future. They came back with so many questions."