Cleaning up Lancashire for Queen's birthday

The campaign aims to attack the blight of litter and reclaim our beautiful countryside, parks, beaches and waterways.

Ahead of the Queen’s 90th birthday on April 21, the initiative will revive the UK’s first nationwide anti-litter campaign in 1953, the year of Her Majesty’s coronation, with the country’s Lord Lieutenants tasked with cleaning up their counties.

Jacky Hohol, Lancashire organiser on behalf of Lord Shuttleworth, said: “When people get involved in the community they become their own custodians of it.

“When you get a school involved, kids aren’t going to spend a few hours cleaning up and then watch their mate drop litter.”

The North West has the lowest percentage of sites deemed to be of an acceptable standard of cleanliness, with just 79.1 per cent meeting the grade.

“I think Lancashire is the best represented other than the Borough of London,” said Mrs Hohol. “I’m treating it like a competition!

“Several areas are using this to get some of the flood damage sorted. We’ve seen so much positive community cohesion over the last few months where everybody’s come together to fix the problems.

“Let’s get out there and sort things out and get things back to how they should be.”

See www.cleanforthequeen.co.uk/home/2365