Wombles do their bit to transform village

The Killamarsh Wombles group was established in February and since then the members have tirelessly cleared the village from years’ worth of littering, fly tipping and general waste.

Hundreds of bags of litter and multiple skips worth of fly tipping have been collected, thanks to the thousands of hours by the dedicated team.

Organiser, Mary-Ann Ritchie says the work has resulted in a cleaner, greener, safer place to live, work and play for both humans and wildlife.

Mary-Ann started the group after seeing how neglected the trails, disused canal beds, verges and roads were.

She said: “The call-to-action response from volunteers was astounding and the group of pickers are a very hardworking bunch.

"Support from the local community and business owners has also been staggering with well wishes, donations of food, money and equipment which has been greatly appreciated.”

Mary-Ann says that while the Wombles are still finding hidden ‘grot spots’ to get stuck in to, they have done what they set out to do by transforming Killamarsh and now regularly maintain their hard work by picking all the areas previously covered, to ensure that there isn’t a repeat of the previous build-up of litter.

And she added that all villagers in Killamarsh and not just the Wombles have shown their sense of public duty, in making sure that their village was kept clean by doing their bit.