Soggy councillors clean up

NOT all civic duties are cheese and wine parties, cutting ribbons and nights out at the theatre – as several soggy councillors discovered at one community event.

NOT all civic duties are cheese and wine parties, cutting ribbons and nights out at the theatre – as several soggy councillors discovered at one community event.

But they carried on despite the appalling weather – filling black sacks with wet rubbish from an area being turned into a new nature reserve for Felixstowe.

A number of town councillors braved pouring rain to join the litter pick, led by mayor Doreen Savage and her consort Peggy Osborne.

They gave Peewit Hill – a popular link between the port and the housing estates in the west of the resort – a spruce up as part of the national Litter Action campaign to get people out and about tidying up their towns and villages.

Town clerk Susan Robinson said that despite the rain, those who turned up still enjoyed themselves and put in a lot of effort.

"There probably wasn't as much litter as in previous years when Peewit Hill has been chosen for the litter pick, but we still filled several sacks," she said.

"The hill is managed much better these days and a lot of effort is being concentrated on looking after it, which I think could really be seen."

While there was less litter than usual, the group still managed to find a bedstead – showing that the hill is still being used by some fly-tippers as a rubbish dump, even though the household waste site is only a mile away.

Work is taking place to create pedestrian and cycle-friendly paths down the hill, as well as to manage areas to create a nature reserve as an education and leisure facility for the town.