LOCALS are armed with their litter pickers in West Oxfordshire ahead of the upcoming Clean for the Queen events in honour of Her Majesty’s birthday.

Households across the district are being urged to get involved in community clear-ups being held in Witney and Carterton next month.

It is part of a national campaign to get Britain tidied up for The Queen’s 90th birthday in April.

Organiser and West Oxfordshire conservative association member Liam Walker, 25, will be staging the Witney clean up event on Sunday, March 6.

He said: “The idea is to get people out for an hour or so to help clean up the area.

“For the Witney event we are going to be focusing mainly on the Leys recreation ground [off Station Lane] and just pick up litter essentially.

“We have around 10 people definitely signed up at the moment but we could cater for between 20 to 30.”

The Carterton event is being held the day before on Saturday, March 5, and will be in town centre areas including Alvescot Road recreation ground, Tower Square, Church View footpath and the area by Barclays Bank in Black Bourton Road.

A Facebook group event has been created for both events which start at 1pm in Alvescot Road, Carterton, and at 11am in The Leys, Witney.

Carterton Town Councillor Suzi Coul said: “It is a great opportunity for the community to come together and do something positive that we can all benefit from.

“We are all becoming more environmentally conscious and want our local area to be as clean and tidy as possible.

“It makes our community a nicer place to live and shows pride in where we live.

“A small donation of your time can make a big impact on your community.”

GET INVOLVED

Are you organising an event to celebrate the Queen’s actual 90th birthday on April 21?

Perhaps you’re celebrating your birthday on the same day. We’d love to feature you in our coverage so email news@oxfordmail.co.uk or call us on 01865 425500. 

There are a number of clean-up events planned for parts of Oxfordshire from March 4-6 ahead of Her Majesty’s big day. 

In Oxford the OxClean group – part of the Oxford Civic Society – will be hosting a clean-up across the entire weekend for their ninth annual community clean up.

There will be another litter pick further south of the county in Didcot organised by the town council for Saturday, March 5.

On the same day further up the county Banbury town centre will be blitzed in honour of Her Majesty.

It is not just local households being encouraged to clean up. Schools including St Ebbe’s Primary in Oxford and a host of businesses will be out hosting their own litter picks.