The beach guardians

A few* stalwart volunteers meet once a month to TIDY UP the neighbourhood, much to the delight of some residents & Lewes District Council! *Now in our 15th year, we have welcomed more recruits, taking our total to 38.

As from October 2021, we will be operating as normal and resuming our monthly organised litterpicks in the Allington area. These usually take place on a Sunday morning starting at 10am for an hour or so at a venue advertised on the events section. We generally follow our litterpick in a local cafe for a chat and refreshments. We are a small friendly group of like-minded individuals who care about our local environment and want to keep it clean and tidy. If you are interested in joining us then do please get in touch and give us a try - new members are always welcome. All equipment is provided.

Local community litter picking group

Billingham and surrounding villages

Who are we? We are an environmental group undertaking planting in our village, litter picks, promoting reduction in Co2 and smart driving, and working with the local community to make our village a litter free area. We deliver over 1700 newsletters around our village promoting our message and work with Thringstone Primary School and the local brownie group various events, including a scarecrow festival in June 2011 which brought together all sectors of the community . We held another scarecrow event, in conjunction with Thringstone Methodists, on Saturday 6th July 2013. Our chairman litter picks daily, and is helped by others who litter pick regularly. We try, where possible, to recycle items which can be recycled. We petitioned for extra recycling bins in our village and now have two tin and plastic bottle recycling points and a glass recycling point, and are currently asking for the council to consider ways of recycling acceptable items put in roadside litter bins. Between February 2013 and the end of February 2014, we removed 1,958 bags of litter from the village and woodlands, which we feel is a staggering amount. We have also worked with other groups on environmental issues in the village, and were part of the steering group that saw Thringstone Youth Club win the Children and Young People\\\\\\\'s Green Footprints Award in 2011 for their mural project. We have taken over several flowerbeds and previously untidy and unused areas in the village for planting and offer historical and environmental walks around the village. Please see our website which is www.friends-of-thringstone.org.uk for further details on our group, plus details on our constitution, health and safety policy, equal opportunities policy, parental consent statements and volunteer expenses statement. You can also see on that site details of all our publications. What have we done? In 2009 we won the NW Leicestershire Green Footprints Awards, were awarded an outstanding achievement certificate by East Midlands In Bloom in 2009, and won a gold and silver in the village achievement awards run by the Rural Community Council. In 2010 and were finalists in the Community and Partnerships category of the NWLDC\\\\\\\'s Green Footprints Awards and again in 2013. In 2011 we won The Queen\\\\\\\'s Award for Voluntary Service, something of which we are very proud, especially since 2011 was the European Year of Volunteering,. In 2015 we won the Big Tidy Award at the Keep Britain Tidy Jubilee Awards 2015. In 2021 we won the Leicestershire Live Environmental Heroes Award and also won the Community Organisation Award 2021 with Leicestershire Community Champions. We have a facebook page, and we are also on twitter - address is @Thringstone2. In 2019, our chairman was awarded a British Empire Medal for service to Thringstone and in September 2019, her dog, who accompanied her on all her litter picks, was awarded a commendation from the PDSA.

Litter picking in Epping Forest

Spurred on by the grass verges and parks around our lovely town regularly covered with litter, I decided to do litter picking walks in my free time. I have now formed this group, which is also on Facebook, to encourage others to help. I love where I live and aim to make others proud of their locality, so they think twice before chucking their rubbish. Don’t chuck it, bin it.

Group of five villages in the Parish trying to keep their area and lanes clean and safe

We aim to improve the local environment and work in conjunction with the local councillors. 2700 bags collected in 2018

Local environmental group. Good links with community. Invented the BIG clean-up, this year with 1000 people involved.