Baby joins village spring cleaners

A FOUR-month-old baby was the youngest participant in a village litter pick held on Sunday.

The eighth annual Sonning Common Spring Clean saw 90 villagers dispatched to target litter hot spots as well as residential areas in the village.

Volunteers gathered at the village hall in Wood Lane at 10am to collect hi-viz vests, rubbish bags and litter pickers, before being dispersed throughout the village.

Among the volunteers were families with young children and councillors. Thea Harley, four months, attended with her mother Sally, who jokingly dubbed her the “youngest picker”.

Organiser Emma Lawrence, 47, said that despite the hard work of village warden Tony Parisi, as well as “village gardeners”, the problem of litter still persisted in the village.

She said: “It’s half organised where we identify areas, such as Kennylands Road, Blounts Court Road and Reades lane, and half free for all.

“We’re really lucky in Sonning Common as we have got an amazing community here. Sadly, we do still suffer from a litter problem and it’s really satisfying to be able to contribute to making that better.”

Following the clean, volunteers left rubbish bags in a pile outside the hall and reported where large and heavy items had been left to be collected with a trailer.

They then congregated in the hall where eight members of Sonning Common Women’s Institute provided tea, coffee and cakes. The first spring clean was launched by Mrs Lawrence and fellow parent Geoff Davis in 2018, when they approached Sonning Common Parish Council with the idea of starting a voluntary litter pick as part of the Great British Spring Clean, a national initiative.

The first event attracted more than 100 people. Mrs Lawrence said: “The first year we did this in Sonning Common we had so much rubbish, we were collecting things that had obviously been there for a very long time.

“We didn’t have a regular, annual event at that point. Even now, with 90 pickers, everyone has got a bag, we must be collecting thousands of bits of things that get picked up and it really still makes a difference.”

Mrs Lawrence said that children involved in the event get excited about discovering unusual items. This year, they included a disused mobility scooter, which had been dumped near some bins.

She said: “The kids love finding stuff and there was a lovely moment when they came in triumphantly holding an air vent, and declared their find to the whole village hall.

“We also found a packet of crisps from 1995, which always makes the geekier litter pickers among us really excited.

“It’s a really good example of plastic and how it just doesn’t degrade and just sits around in our environment.

“I know that it’s not going to change the dial after today, however, all of these changes influence behaviour and reminds people that we don’t have to accept that our lived environment is just cluttered up with litter and that we can expect more for it.”