Litter encourages group into action

Members of Ravensthorpe Residents Action Group with their bin bags. They will be tidying in the first of a series of litter picks across the estate. Pictured are Anne Blackburn, Karen Mayfield, Bruce Bird and Betty Lyons. (D544A316)

Volunteers in Ravensthorpe want local people to join them in a series of litter picks across their neighbourhood.

Meanwhile one Reporter reader, Jan Mason, sparked debate on our Facebook page when she wrote about the amount of rubbish she saw as she drove from Wakefield to Hanging Heaton.

She said: “We were sitting in traffic a long time and could not fail to notice all the rubbish left round the sports field everywhere.

“It was shocking to see and looked as if no-one there cares about the state of the place.”

Members of the Residents’ Action Group in Ravensthorpe have become so frustrated, they are running their first litter pick on Saturday April 27.

Volunteers should meet in the playground at the east end of Broomer Street at 10am.

The plan is to hold clean-up events in different locations every two or three months, with the aim of covering the whole of Ravensthorpe within the year.

The group also wants to educate residents on the importance of not dropping their rubbish in the street.

Committee member Bruce Bird said: “People are walking down the street and consuming stuff and dropping it on the street or in a playground.

“They expect someone else to pick it up, or they expect that nobody will pick it up and they will play in a growing heap of litter.”