Featherston litter retrieval a success

TIDY: Clean Up Featherston organiser Peter Jackson (far left) welcoming the volunteers who attended the event on Saturday.PHOTO/CHRIS KILFORD

With plastic gloves pulled on and black rubbish bags in tow, more than 20 Wairarapa people trod the Featherston streets on Saturday collecting litter.

In under two hours, participants of the annual Clean Up Featherston event had filled one third of a skip bin with rubbish.

Peter Jackson, one of the event's organisers, said the weekend clean up had seen a good turn-out compared to last year, which had been a "dismal failure" due to bad weather.

"This year we wanted it to be a kicker.

"We provided a lot of promotion for the event and we got local businesses to donate food items or give always to make it more attractive for people to participate."

Over two dozen adults and children were assigned different blocks in the town to clean up.

This was followed by a "post match" barbecue at the Featherston Community Centre.

SuperValue Supermarket donated sausages for the barbecue and Loco Coffee gave away coffee vouchers as spot prizes.

Mr Jackson said it was not just Featherston residents who had turned out to tidy the town.

"One lady was a former Featherston resident, who came down from Masterton.

"She just loves Featherston and even though she's not living here at the moment she felt inspired to come along and help out."

He said "picking up litter as a group and working together" was a good way for the community to bond.

"In the very place I picked up litter on Saturday I drove past on Sunday and someone had already thrown litter there.

"So it's something we may have to consider doing more frequently."

In the past Clean Up Featherston was held during 'Keep New Zealand Beautiful Clean-Up Week' in September.

"But because the weather was quite changeable at that time of year and we usually don't have a good turn-out due to this we decided to change it."