A resident of Highfields, Parish Councillor Graham Cooke allowed his two children a break from their online lessons this week, to join in a session of litter picking and learn about the impact on the environment by the minority!

Following reports of litter and dog waste bags dropped into the hedges surrounding the green space at Highfields, Councillor Cooke volunteered to help clean it up. Armed with litter pickers and protective gloves, Councillor Cooke and his two children, Ollie and Eloise spent some time this week picking up bottles, plastic bags and dog waste bags. The children are now researching online, learning about how dangerous some of the ‘litter’ they collected is to humans, animals and the environment; and also looking into ways some of the litter could have been recycled rather than being thrown into hedges!

From the picture you can see they got quite a haul from clearing just one hedge! The ‘team’ plan to carry out further sessions clearing other hedges over the coming weeks.

Early in 2020, the Parish Council had been alerted to the issue of litter and waste around the green space areas. After making enquiries with the consortium of builders and South Derbyshire District Council, it became apparent that there were no general/dog waste bins specified for installation in the planning application (apart from some near the proposed play area).

Therefore, the Parish Council stepped in, seeking permission to install an initial four dog waste bins along the pathway close to the green space at Highfields. These bins were installed late in 2020 and are well used. Hopefully they will reduce the incidents of dog waste bags being dropped into the hedges. The Parish Council will seek permission to install further general/dog waste bins at new sites as and when other areas of the development are completed.