COMMUNITY groups from across Hyndburn have announced they are backing charity Keep Britain Tidy’s Great British Spring Clean campaign.

The nation-wide campaign, which runs from March 20 to April 13, brings together individuals, charities and councils to shown their love for where they live by taking up the challenge to clean streets, parks and beaches across the country.

In Hyndburn, charities Friends of Platts Lodge, The Canals and Rivers Trust and Accrington and Blackburn Angling Society have already started playing their part with a clean-up Platt’s Lodge last Sunday alongside council cabinet member for environmental services Paul Cox and constituency MP Sara Britcliffe.

Councillor Cox said: “It’s great that we have so many community spirited groups here in Hyndburn and we’re supporting them in this campaign by supplying clean-up packs containing litter pickers, handy hoops, waste sacks, gloves and hi-viz vests and collecting the waste after the clean-ups.”

The Platts Lodge clean up saw 25 people take part who managed to collect 20 bags of rubbish along with an abandoned shopping trolley and suitcase.

Commenting on the event’s success, Keep Britain Tidy Chief Executive Allison Ogden-Newton OBE said: “It is groups like Friends of Platts Lodge, The Canals and Rivers Trust and Accrington and Blackburn Angling Society who are leading the action in communities up and down the country and making a huge difference, not just during this campaign but all year round.

“We would like to thank them for their support and encourage as many people as possible to support them and join them in taking action.”

Last year the campaign saw more than half a million volunteers, 175,000 of them school children, from around the UK collect 900,000 bags of rubbish.

Ms Ogden-Newton OBE said: “The overwhelming response to last year’s Great British Spring Clean showed that there are many thousands of people out there who love where they live and are prepared to take action to make it better for themselves, their families and their communities.” If you would like to take part email enquiries@hyndburnbc.gov.uk or call 01254 388111.