A TOTAL of 23 bags of litter were collected by a team of 26 volunteers at the Malvern Hills.

As well as items such as cans and packets, unusual items collected included a set of golf clubs as well as a bicycle wheel and car tyre.

Efforts were concentrated on Sherrard’s Green and Madresfield Road.

Beck Baker, community and conservation officer, said: “We’d like to say a huge thank you to all the volunteers who came out and helped us. We have been running this event for the last four years but this was the best attendance so far and so we managed to tidy up a huge area in record time.”

“Our thanks also go out to St Mary’s Church for their delicious tea and biscuits which were a real treat at the end of the morning.”

The Malvern Hills Trust organised the event as part of the Keep Britain Tidy - Great British Spring Clean campaign which is held yearly.

The trust cares for a number of green verges throughout Malvern as well as the main Hills and surrounding commons.

A number of other public events and guided walks on the Malvern Hills and Commons will take place throughout the year for those who’d like to find out more about this landscape.

Over half a million volunteers were part of the Great British Spring Clean event, united in their intention to clean up areas of the UK from litter pollution and to recycle as much of what is collected as possible.

It is hoped by cleaning up the environment from man-made waste, habitats for wildlife will be improved.

So far, a total of 600,000 bags of litter has been collected.

Litter picking across the UK as part of the campaign is due to finish on April 23.

To get involved, visit keepbritaintidy.org.uk

Litter pickers are encouraged to share their stories on twitter using the hashtag ‘GBSpringClean