AN army of litter pickers have come in for high praise for helping to improve the cleanliness of the borough’s streets.

As part of ‘Love Your Street’ – a new government-funded initiative – 300 businesses, 270 young people involved in the National Citizen Service programme – and a number of St Helens councillors rolled up their sleeves and got stuck into a series of clean-up operations around St Helens and Earlestown town centres.

This resulted in 329 bags of litter being collected and a positive response from businesses, with many committing to discuss opportunities to improve St Helens and Earlestown town centres – while more than 30 said they would take part in future coordinated community clean-ups.

Justin Dalrymple from Groundwork CLM, the charitable trust that led the litter picks, said: “The whole idea is to show everybody in our town centres that it’s about more than just litter picking. "It is fun, you can have a nice time outdoors and make new friends – but most importantly it makes a huge difference to the local area, which is very important.”

Cllr Lynn Clarke, St Helens Council’s cabinet member for environmental services – who was among those to take part in the project – added: “We’ve had really positive comments from residents who have seen us along the way, giving us support and thanking us for what we’re doing.

“Taking part in a community litter pick is really rewarding and worthwhile, and something we as a council will always seek to promote and get involved in.”

For more information visit loveyourstreet.org.uk