VOLUNTEERS from Keep Abergavenny Tidy (KAT) did their November clean-up last Tuesday – the first since the end of the firebreak lockdown in Wales.

Ten volunteers fanned out in pairs and filled nine orange and eight purple bags – 17 in total – of plastic and glass bottles, an iron bar, a car tyre and mat, PPE kit, and two lots of discarded bedding.

The litter was either recycled or put out for safe disposal.

A car battery tipped from the Byfield car park into vegetation was too heavy for the volunteers to remove, so they reported it for retrieval to Monmouthshire County Council.

The community litter-pick covered Ross Road, Hereford Road and into Park Crescent, Croesonen Down to Bailey Park and the Merthyr Road slip road. In addition, they cleared the slopes in Mill Street around the castle, a hot spot for cans and bottles.

Helen Trevor Davies, KAT coordinator said: “Wales has just emerged from lockdown, so a great deal of the bottles and cans may well have been on the ground for some time as we needed to dig into the undergrowth to extract some of them.

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“We work very closely with Monmouthshire County Council and their liaison officer Sue Parkinson. At one of our meetings we mentioned the litter behind the railway station, and we have noticed that this area is now cleaned up.

"We do know that KAT volunteers regularly clear the area around the station. Some of us noted that the council workers were also out litter picking the stretch of the A449 from Abergavenny to Raglan last week.

“We were delighted to see that there seems to be much community support for our litter picks. We advertise ourselves well by wearing high vis jackets with our logo in Welsh and English: Cadwch Y Fenni'n Daclus/Keep Abergavenny Tidy.

“It is not unusual for people to thank us for what we are doing. On Tuesday, Mr Jon Child, the owner of the Kings Arms, by way of acknowledgement and support, offered the litter pickers coffee on the house which we duly and gratefully accepted.

For more details about the next clean up and how you can help either in group litter-picks or individually looking after your own patch, please email keepabergavennytidy@gmail.com or check out the accounts on Twitter @AbergavennyKeep and Facebook https://www.facebook.com/AberLitter/