A GROUP of volunteers have been out in force trying to make Cockfield a tidier place to live.
A community litter pick saw about 20 people take to the village greens and surrounding areas armed with bin bags and litter pickers last Friday, February 21.
The event was organised by Cockfield Primary School pupil Jack Hopper, who had been left saddened by the amount of litter he saw on his walk home from school each day.
The eight-year-old decided to do something to try to solve the problem of the rubbish with the support of his mum Stacey and YMCA Teesdale.
He said: “I wanted to do a litter pick because every day when I walk back from school I see litter.
“It makes me feel really sad that our nice village is being ruined by litter.”
Ms Hopper said: “Jack noticed that there was a lot of litter on the floor.
“He started picking it up and putting it in carrier bags. He did that for a few days then he noticed that there was more litter everyday so he wanted to do a litter pick.”
She added: “I am very proud of him.”
As a regular at the YMCA Community Cafe, at the Lipscomb Hall, in the centre of Cockfield, with his mum, Jack approached Kate Barrigan, YMCA Teesdale’s community development worker, who was more than happy to help make the event happen.
Jack designed his own flyers to advertise the litter pick and these were distributed through doors in the village as well as in school.
Despite battling with the wind, a total of 15 bags of litter were collected.
YMCA Teesdale operations director, Rachel Dyne, said: “It has been a great morning.
“It is amazing that the idea has come from such a young lad. It makes you very proud that Jack was so confident to come up with the idea.
“One young person even said we should make it a regular thing so we will be looking into the feasibility of this.”
