New Wigan litter picking group launched

Rachel Heydon, from Pemberton, started Wigan Litter Pickers on Facebook after seeing similar drives to combat rubbish not being put in bins elsewhere in the borough.

She has had a huge response from residents keen to do their bit to spruce up their neighbourhoods, with more than 300 people following the group in just 10 days and lots of Wiganers posting pictures of their efforts.

Rachel said one of her reasons for setting up the group was that she is trying to teach her young daughter Phoebe to care for the local environment and expressed delight at how many people have already got on board with her crusade against rubbish being dropped.

Rachel, 37, said: “It is going fantastic, the growth of it is just unbelievable. I didn’t expect it to happen as quickly as this. From one post it has just taken off.

“With being in lockdown we’re quite limited on what we can do. I’m quite keen to encourage my daughter to look after the places where she lives so thought I would set this page up.

“I work in Leigh and driving there I had noticed all these bags around the bins, they were appearing everywhere. My colleague said they had got litter picking groups in Leigh and I thought we need to do this in Wigan.

“I’ve used the friendly rivalry, I posted that we can’t let Leigh beat us at this and we need to show we can do just as good a job.

“I’ve had loads of pictures coming in. One guy was out picking at 7.30 in the morning around Pemberton and I thought that was fantastic.”

Rachel has spoken to Wigan Council about members of the group being able to order free litter picking equipment and other donations have been offered too.

Rachel is now hoping councillors in Wigan will back the group as elected representatives in Leigh have prominently supported their local litter-picking efforts and to spread word of the group.

She says she also wants to encourage a change of mentality among people towards dropping litter and is keen to get more bins installed around Wigan to prevent rubbish ending up on the floor.

To find out more or join in, search for Wigan Litter Pickers on Facebook.

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