Communities turn out in force for the Clean for the Queen Weekend: 4th – 6th March

Community spirited volunteers from across Wiltshire collected 1,800 purple bags of rubbish as they joined the national campaign to Clean for the Queen.

The rubbish, which weighed more than 14 metric tonnes, was collected during events which took place across the county over the weekend of       for the national campaign to mark Her Majesty’s 90th birthday.

In Wiltshire around 70 litter picks involving some 1,400 volunteers were registered with Wiltshire Council and took place over the weekend. There are a number of further litter picks planned.

In the Melksham community area over 100 residents took part collecting over 200 bags of rubbish. Litter picks were led by the Queensway Community Group, Broughton Gifford Parish Council, Young Melksham, Bowerhill Residents Group and Melksham Town Council. Berryfield and Semington Road Action Group and Community Action Whitley and Shaw also have events coming up in the weeks ahead.

Baroness Scott of Bybrook, OBE, Leader of Wiltshire Council praised the hard working volunteers. She said, “Congratulations to all our community-spirited volunteers who took the time to be part of this campaign and have made such a difference to their local areas. I hope this will encourage everyone to continue to keep our county litter free in the future.

“My thanks go to The Landscape Group who provided litter picking equipment to help volunteers during the weekend and have done a great job collecting all the bags of rubbish.”

‘Clean for The Queen’ is a national campaign launched by Country Life magazine and Keep Britain Tidy to rally volunteers across the country to clean up their local areas.

Young and old, community groups, schools and the Army joined forces to clean up local areas and fill hundreds of purple bags with rubbish at organised events across Wiltshire from Friday to Sunday. Toby Sturgis, cabinet member for waste, joined 120 service personnel from nine Regiment Royal Logistic Corps at their clean up in Chippenham on the Friday.

Wiltshire Council acted as a distribution hub for Clean for the Queen rubbish collection sacks and also distributed 180 litter pickers and 2,000 tabards to more than 80 different groups through the county. Community Engagement Managers helped co-ordinate a number of events and also gave guidance to communities on how to organise their own litter picks safely.

David Cowie, area manager from The Landscape Group said, “Clean for the Queen is about everyone working together to give the country a big spring clean ahead of Her Majesty’s birthday. The Landscape Group was delighted to support Wiltshire Council and the local communities with their cleans across the county. It was great to see the people of Wiltshire come out in force to support the campaign.”