A KEEN team of litter pickers joined forces for the Keep Britain Tidy campaign around the Bridgemead area.

McDonald’s Restaurant Manager Chris Lawrence and staff from the Bridgemead restaurant on Great Western Way teamed up with the local Scouts from the 1st Westlea and 17th Swindon groups to try and spruce up the area.

The challenge was to give both Mannington Park and the areas surrounding the industrial estate on Ashworth Road a much needed refresh.

The event began with Chris taking the group of 28 scouts and their group leaders through the recycling processes at McDonald’s and how important it is to take an active stance on caring for the local area and environment. The volunteers then gathered their litter picking gear and worked hard to clear discarded rubbish along their route.

With all their bin bags full, the event was hailed 'a great success' after the team managed to collect more than 20 bags which were then separated out into both ‘mixed recycling’ and ‘general waste’ to ensure it was all discarded effectively.

This year is the sixth year of McDonald’s and Keep Britain Tidy’s ongoing partnership to help combat litter and the recent event was just one of a number of clean-ups taking place across the UK as part of McDonald's Keep Britain Tidy’s anti-littering campaign, ‘Love Where You Live’. The campaign encourages communities to take action and work together to tackle litter in their area.

Carl Room, McDonald’s franchisee and owner of the Bridgemead restaurant said: “It was fantastic to see everyone come together and help tidy up Bridgemead. It’s a key priority of ours to ensure that the local area remains free of litter and is an enjoyable place to live, work and visit.

"It is always good fun to partner with local groups like the Scouts to work together and make a positive difference to where we live and work. I would like to thank everyone who gave up their time to help."

Aside from litter events McDonald’s restaurants patrol the streets at least three times a day to collect all litter that has been discarded, regardless of its origin. Crew members across the UK cover a total of 3,000 miles each week on litter patrols, which equates to 150,000 miles a year and the distance of five marathons each year per store.

Jane Harvey, Assistant District Commissioner for the Scouts in the Swindon North area, said: “At the Scouts, we try and teach the importance of caring for our environment with all of the activities that we do and the skills that we teach our members. I would like to thank the Bridgemead McDonald’s restaurant for inviting us to join in their litter event as all of the kids really enjoyed themselves. It was a great success - so much so that one of the leaders from 1st Toothill has now asked if their scouts could come along and do the same evening for their awareness."