Conservative campaigners were pleased to join volunteers from Emmer Green Residents’ Association (EGRA) and Caversham GLOBE for a RESCUE litter pick in the woods behind Marshland Square/St Luke’s Way and the rough land between Rotherfield Way and Southdown on Sunday 11th March. Peppard ward Conservative candidate Jane Stanford-Beale joined Cllr Richard Willis and a small team that got to work at 11am equipped with orange plastic bags for general rubbish, clear bags for recyclables and some litter pickers.
They expected to find perhaps the usual coke and beer cans, plus sweet wrappers and a few glass bottles, but were truly shocked at the quantity of rubbish found.
At the end of a two hour session the team of five had recovered 8 orange bags or general waste (including glass), 7 clear bags of recyclables, a car wheel, a tyre, part of a TV, a plastic car bumper, 2 mobile phones, a traffic cone, an estate agent’s board and part of the post, plus what looked like the metal frames of a pram and a rocking horse!
They saw quite a few local residents, most of whom encouraged them with supportive comments and praise, but noticed that garden waste was being dumped on the highway land between Rotherfield Way and Southdown. It was clear that this was a site for regular household fly-tipping as there were many black plastic bags and other household rubbish such as a mattress and an ironing board. Unfortunately these could not be reached so this has been reported to the Council hotline together with a photo.
Jane Stanford-Beale and Cllr Richard Willis congratulate EGRA for organising this event and encourage all residents to join the next clean up.