Hirstwood Litter Group was formed by some local children so they could take an active role in keeping their area clean and free from rubbish.
Bradford Council Neighbourhood Warden, Rod Robertson helped the kids set up the group.
Every Thursday he arms them with litter pickers and high visibility tabards and they go out together to clean up their local streets and park.
Enthusiastic Litter Group Member, John said “It makes the area more enjoyable because there isn’t as much litter about.”
Local parent, Beverley Crossley said “It makes them more conscious of what they do with litter – makes them put the litter in the bin.
“They get fresh air and exercise. They get to come out and meet their friends and get to do something for the environment at the same time.”
Transcript
Hello my name is Ethan and I am from the Hirstwood litter group.
Hello my name’s John and I’m from the Hirstwood litter group.
Hello my name’s Alice and I’m from the Hirstwood litter group.
Picking litter’s fun – yay!!
Hi I’m Rod Roberts and I’m a neighbourhood warden for Shipley and part of the area I cover is Hirstwood.
Back in last year’s summer holiday I was down doing a little bit of litter picking at a play ground and some of these bright young stars came up to me and said ‘can we have a go please’. So that was the formation of the Hirstwood litter group really.
It was the children themselves wanting to do something in their area.
Once we got the support from their parents – the parents come out as you’ve probably seen.
And they carry the bags, the children go and do the litter pick. They’re absolutely fantastic. It’s had a massive effect on the area.
I’m Beverley Cotley and I am a parent of Francesca and Joshua Cotley who both come litter picking.
I’ve come out because my son’s gone to tea so I’ve replaced him to help the children pick up the litter.
The children enjoy it and it cleans up the environment for them to play in.
It makes them more cautious of what they do with the litter; they put the litter in the bin rather than just chuck it on the floor and walk away and leave it.
They get fresh air, they get exercise, they get to come out and meet friends and they get to do something for the environment at the same time.
The amount of litter itself has gone down so there has been less litter for them to pick up, so rather than standing idly by they actually decided themselves that they were going to do a couple of streets!
So what streets do we do? Albert Avenue, and the top road, Dalham Avenue.
So they’ve now extended it where they do two streets where they pick litter up.
I just think they’re great. Because of what they do for the area, the parents are more than happy to support them. It really is a wonderful thing.
The fact that the children themselves have taken it upon themselves to go and clean it up, the number of comments we have had from residents have gone down. When I go to them on other matters they say ‘Oh those kids do a fantastic job don’t they’.
To setup the litter group is so easy. It’s the children themselves - all as a warden I have done is provide a couple of tools for them.
It helps us like, it makes it better because everyone’s allowed to clean their area, and it makes it more enjoyable because there is not as much litter around.
All the children from the Litter Group said “Picking litter’s fun!"
