Litter womble 'appalled' after marathon Leicestershire clear-up

A volunteer litter picker said he was appalled by the mess he encountered during a 26.2-mile (42.2km) charity clear-up through Leicestershire.

Sam Laywood collected 34 bags of rubbish from roadsides during a marathon-length solo challenge he completed on Wednesday.

A safe dumped in a ditch and a box of Christmas decorations were among the more unusual items he found along the way.

"It was pretty grim," he said.

"I've been collecting litter with the North Leicestershire Litter Wombles for a few years now but the litter I found in the last few days has been some of the worst I have seen," he added.

"A lot of it has just been chucked out of car windows by lazy people.

"It's appalling and a little disheartening but I'm glad to be able to highlight the problem because I hope seeing the harm litter causes persuades people to improve their behaviour."

The 38-year-old set out from his home in Belton, near Loughborough, on Tuesday morning on a north-to-south route through towns to the west of Leicester.

He passed Copt Oak, Markfield, Ratby, Kirby Muxloe and Enderby, reporting fly-tipping and arranging for council refuse collectors to pick up litter he bagged, before arriving at his end destination, Broughton Astley.

"The sad thing is I could have spent a month collecting and there would still be massive amounts of bottles, cans and food packages," he said.

"A safe is one of the stranger things I've found while out picking, but there it was chucked in a ditch, so I reported it to the council for collection."

Mr Laywood has used his walk to support the Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust and has so far raised more than £1,500.

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