Friends of Thringstone
4261 bags collected so far!
Who are we?
We are an environmental group undertaking planting in our village, litter picks, promoting reduction in Co2 and smart driving, and working with the local community to make our village a litter free area.
We deliver over 1700 newsletters around our village promoting our message and work with Thringstone Primary School and the local brownie group various events, including a scarecrow festival in June 2011 which brought together all sectors of the community . We held another scarecrow event, in conjunction with Thringstone Methodists, on Saturday 6th July 2013.
Our chairman litter picks daily, and is helped by others who litter pick regularly. We try, where possible, to recycle items which can be recycled.
We petitioned for extra recycling bins in our village and now have two tin and plastic bottle recycling points and a glass recycling point, and are currently asking for the council to consider ways of recycling acceptable items put in roadside litter bins.
Between February 2013 and the end of February 2014, we removed 1,958 bags of litter from the village and woodlands, which we feel is a staggering amount. We have also worked with other groups on environmental issues in the village, and were part of the steering group that saw Thringstone Youth Club win the Children and Young People's Green Footprints Award in 2011 for their mural project.
We have taken over several flowerbeds and previously untidy and unused areas in the village for planting and offer historical and environmental walks around the village.
Please see our website which is www.friends-of-thringstone.org.uk for further details on our group, plus details on our constitution, health and safety policy, equal opportunities policy, parental consent statements and volunteer expenses statement. You can also see on that site details of all our publications.
What have we done?
In 2009 we won the NW Leicestershire Green Footprints Awards, were awarded an outstanding achievement certificate by East Midlands In Bloom in 2009, and won a gold and silver in the village achievement awards run by the Rural Community Council. In 2010 and were finalists in the Community and Partnerships category of the NWLDC's Green Footprints Awards and again in 2013. In 2011 we won The Queen's Award for Voluntary Service, something of which we are very proud, especially since 2011 was the European Year of Volunteering,. In 2015 we won the Big Tidy Award at the Keep Britain Tidy Jubilee Awards 2015. In 2021 we won the Leicestershire Live Environmental Heroes Award and also won the Community Organisation Award 2021 with Leicestershire Community Champions.
We have a facebook page, and we are also on twitter - address is @Thringstone2. In 2019, our chairman was awarded a British Empire Medal for service to Thringstone and in September 2019, her late dog, who accompanied her on all her litter picks, was awarded a commendation from the PDSA.
Contact this group
Latest Achievements
17 December 2023
Hood from a pram, wheel from a pram - both dumped near to the rear of our church.
- 23 bags collected
- 2 pickers
10 December 2023
Polystyrene and cans blown from recycling bins left outside in gale force winds.
- 27 bags collected
- 2 pickers
03 December 2023
- 40 bags collected
- 5 pickers
26 November 2023
Plus 6 shopping baskets returned to Thringstone Co-op.
- 34 bags collected
- 4 pickers
19 November 2023
Bag full of unopened Chinese takeaway thrown down onto a pavement, still in its bag and less than 100 yards from a street bin. One of the handles of the bag had gone, but it was still transportable. Why spend about £20 on a meal and then throw it on a pavement?
- 24 bags collected
- 2 pickers
12 November 2023
- 21 bags collected
- 2 pickers
05 November 2023
Plus 2 shopping baskets, once again used for shoplifting from our village Co-op store.
- 23 bags collected
- 3 pickers
29 October 2023
Also logged a fridge freezer, several shopping baskets from the local shop which shoplifters had left in the roadway and some military ammunition which was reported to the relevant authorities.
- 57 bags collected
- 7 pickers
22 October 2023
- 19 bags collected
- 3 pickers
17 October 2023
Dead rat, shopping baskets from local shop
- 32 bags collected
- 3 pickers
08 October 2023
Also included picking up and returning to the local Co-op store 3 of their baskets this week. There is a spate of shoplifting going on, and people walk or run out with baskets and then dump them when they transfer stuff to their cars/other bags. Baskets were returned to local store.
- 24 bags collected
- 2 pickers
01 October 2023
Also various cushions on roads plus for sale signs uprooted by children and taken to their play area. These were returned to the properties concerned.
- 58 bags collected
- 7 pickers
24 September 2023
Plus a chair cushion in the middle of the road, a tyre and other such delights. On Tuesday 18, it was recycling day in our village. Plastics go into red boxes with lids, but most don't use the lids and when it is windy, stuff just blows all over the place. One person collected 12 bags of just recycling on that day because of the gales, and another person 4. All recycling put into other recycling facilities so it didn't go into landfill.
- 38 bags collected
- 3 pickers
17 September 2023
- 22 bags collected
- 2 pickers
Litter picking groups
Litter Picking Groups are people who join forces to work towards a cleaner and greener community.
Find out more about Litter Picking Groups.