LITTER louts in North Swindon have been dealt a bitter blow as an army of volunteers set out to clean up the streets at the weekend.

The gang of 16 spent Saturday morning traipsing around the St Andrews Ridge area in the glorious sunshine filling up bags of discarded rubbish.

Organiser Myra Jackson, 71, was moved to take action after being left in despair at the amount of litter that blighted the area in which she lives.

A concerned Myra said: “St Andrews Ridge is a lovely estate with open fields and hedges. It is used by walkers and runners and sometimes there is such a lot of litter that it breaks my heart because I love nature.

“Over the past few months I have gradually worked myself up to doing something about it. I got in touch with the Blunsdon Parish Council, who provided us with sticks and bags, and we managed to get a group together.

“More and more people started to get in touch and before I knew it there were 16 of us.”

After two hours of outdoor spring cleaning, the volunteers had managed to collect an impressive 30 bags of rubbish.

The intrepid 16 were even supplied with complimentary hot drinks and biscuits by the Co-op in Highdown Way and staff at The Jovial Monk.

“It’s very much an ongoing thing, said Myra.

“There are lots of wooded areas round here that nobody really sees, but children often play in them and I thought clearing the litter would be a very worthwhile thing to do.

“It was a lovely sunny day and everyone really enjoyed themselves. Children came along and we thought it was a good education for them.”

Wishing to thank the Co-op and The Jovial Monk for supplying them with treats, Myra said: “It was very nice to have their support and we greatly appreciated it.”

The team will certainly be right back at it as Myra is hoping to turn it into a monthly occurrence.

It follows the nation campaign earlier this month, The Great British Spring Clean, in which half a million people across the country turned out to clean up their communities.

Swindon councillor Keith Williams called the scheme a “really worthwhile initiative”.