Shannon Banks, who works at the Food Bank amongst other community activities, put a call out for residents to help for a few hours on Saturday, 12th September pick up litter around the cemetery and other adjoining areas. Much to her amazement, 13 people of all ages and areas around Chertsey turned up! ‘We had a fantastic group of hard-working volunteers come out this morning for our community litter pick along the footpath that runs between Chertsey and Addlestone. In two hours, we picked up 26 bags of rubbish and recycling, 2 bikes, one shopping trolley, one muddy crate, one shopping basket, one traffic cone and one tyre. The footpath looks amazing.’ Shannon reported on the chat groups.
This was a fantastic response to a growing neighbourhood and environmental problem. ‘Litter is unpleasant to see and an unhealthy habit to get into. It is an act of disrespect for the environment and the community’, one resident said. Just being conscious to put litter in proper council receptacles, not to fly tip or disregard items in public locations can have a huge impact in keeping the community looking and feeling so much better.
Thanks to Shannon Banks and Iris Partridge, for putting the event together, and thanks so much for all that participated.
Hopefully this will help to continue to make Chertsey’s beauty spots beautiful! We will look to put notices here on Chertsey Life for other litter pick up events to be able to include those interested who are not on social media.