Villagers Unite for Litter Pick Success!

In bright sunshine, villagers spent the weekend on Finchampstead’s annual litter pick.

Finchampstead Parish Council organised two teams: one met at the Greyhound pub and the other started at Finchampstead Baptist Church in the northern part of the parish, known as California.

At the mass turn-out in the north, organised with military precision by the FBC facilities team, litter pickers were treated to bacon sandwiches and allocated to streets and countryside across the parish. There were roughly ‘100 pickers’ at the California end – and not all of them purely attracted by the promise of free bacon. Residents were asked to bring litter-picking tools and high-viz jackets where possible, and some children even had their own jackets with their names on.

Cllr Sylvia McDonald said: “It was a huge success. Lots of people and families with young children. “It was a concerted effort by a number of different parties to make the whole enterprise come together. “It was quite amazing actually – the number of people who was there. It’s such a positive event.”

The smaller, but still busy, southern team organised by cllr Simon Weeks was given croissants at the Greyhound and joined by cllr Chris Mortimer, who brought reinforcements.

Keen litter picker and councillor Gordon Veitch said: “It was the biggest turn out I’d seen.”

Cllr Weeks provided rubbish sacks, high-visibility jackets and picking tools in the Greyhound car park, and cllr Roland Cundy tackled large discarded toys in Fleet Copse in the more rural part of the parish. He said: “It’s the 15 one of these I’ve organised. 23 people registered to take part and another 11 came along.”

Thanks to the sunshine, there were more litter pickers than streets available for cleaning, and the Memorial Hall car park was left with piles of rubbish sacks at the end of the event.

Ted O'Neill, Local Democracy Reporter