Hucknall Litter Wombles launched to clean up the town

A Hucknall resident has taken up the fight against litter in the town and has set up his very own litter picking group to help tackle the issue.

Matt Williams founded The Hucknall Wombles three months ago. They now have their own Facebook page and are looking for more members to join.

Mr Williams began picking up litter at the beginning of the first lockdown in March last year, whilst out walking his dogs.

"I was out walking my dogs on Titchfield Park and I was like there's quite a lot of litter round here, and thought this is pretty bad so I picked a few bits up just with my hands. I did that for a couple of weeks then I thought I don't really want to be picking things up with my hands in the middle of a pandemic so then I went and bought myself a litter picker and progressed from there. A few months ago, someone said are you registered with the Council?

"I went through all the forms, so I'm now actually an official Council volunteer for litter picking. They supply all the bags, they gave me a litter picker, a hoop for holding the bags, gloves an ID badge and I'm also covered by their insurance if I have an accident.

"Because I do it with the bags that they supply their workers recognise that those bags have been done by a volunteer so you can just leave them by any bin. And then when they come to empty the bin they'll collect the bag.

"If I've got lots and lots of bags, I do have contact numbers I can ring to get them to come and collect them, as a general rule it's normally one or two bags at the absolute most so I just leave them by a public bin normally."

Yesterday, Mr Williams, who goes out litter picking most days, along with his daughter, collected three bags of litter near Rockwood Crescent. It would have been more but some of the litter was inaccessible as it was behind an old chain link fence.

He said: "We didn't get all of it by a long shot but we made a bit of a difference. There is a sense of achievement when you've done an area and it's clear."

"I think a lot of the problem is people see an area and there's five or six cans already chucked there and think well I'll chuck mine down there, one more won't hurt. If that pile wasn't there, they might think hang on I'll take it and put it in a bin; it's a never ending battle."

Anyone interested in joining Hucknall Wombles can join the Facebook group here . Once in the group, write a post briefly introducing yourself and requesting more details of how to get involved and Matt will send you details of how to register with the Council.