Residents from all over Ross-on-Wye joined the Ross Community Litter Clean-Up Crew on the morning of Thursday, May 30th to clean up the streets around Brampton.

Starting outside Brampton Primary School, Reporter, Aliya Shibli, joined regular litter pickers, Wendy Salter, former Councillor, Anne Taylor and Anne Thurston, with newcomer, Peter Savidge. The team left no stone unturned, along with eight-year-old Hannah and five-year-old Elsie from Sutton Coldfield. The young eco-warriors had joined their grandparents in Ross-on-Wye and were looking forward to doing their bit for the environment.

Along the route, the crew met with their youngest regular litter picker, five-year-old Annabelle, and members of her family.

All of the bags filled up quickly despite the crew having tackled the area only a few weeks before. Once I spotted one piece of litter, more and more seemed to appear. Rubbish was peppered everywhere, and some of the worst areas, surprisingly, included the edges of people’s driveways and in the hedges on and around their properties.

It was shocking to see the number of crisp packets and beer cans that must have been walked past every day. Clusters of rubbish were in most hedgerows, wedged between branches and suffocating insects.

Despite the unpleasant level of litter, the crew left the grounds feeling positive, having collected 11 bags of waste.

The Ross Gazette look forward to joining the Clean-Up Crew’s litter picks on a regular basis.See this week’s paper for more stories like this, available in shops and as a Digital Edition now.