The Portreath community came together last week for a village litter pick organised by local Cornwall Councillor Joyce Duffin.

Joyce, who is also Cornwall Council portfolio holder for housing and environment, led volunteers from the village who gave up their time to clean up specific areas, while Clean Cornwall provided them with litter grabbers, high-vis vests, black bin bags and hoops, and took the rubbish away afterwards.

At the end of the pick, approximately 30 volunteers of all ages had filled 20 black bin bags with rubbish.

Joyce said: “There were a couple of hot spots in the village that we wanted to clear up and, with the amount of volunteers we had, we could also litter pick other areas.

"I’d like to say a big thank you to the Portreath Arms for providing refreshments afterwards for the volunteers. It was great to see people of all ages volunteering, and we had a number of compliments from other members of the public who appreciated the community taking action to tidy up the village.

"Thank you to everyone who gave up their time. We are hoping to make it a regular occurrence.”

Clean Cornwall said it believes that if people were encouraged to notice litter more so they can see the scale of the problem, and if they heard about how local people across Cornwall are trying to protect the places that matter to them from litter, then they’re much less likely to drop it.

If you want to help to keep Cornwall clean you can join in with existing community run litter picks in your area or organise your own, and details can be found on the Clean Cornwall website www.cleancornwall.org, which can also provide equipment and assistance.