CHILDREN from a West Cumbrian estate rolled their sleeves up during half term to collect 100 bags of rubbish.

A group of 15 children from Mirehouse Residents’ Group joined Copeland council workers for the litter pick on Monday.

Volunteers cleaned-up the area from Uldale Road to the popular cycle path in Mirehouse and a footpath through Arrowthwaite Woods during two two-hour sessions.

Kelly Johnson, who leads the residents’ group’s youth section, said: “It was absolutely fantastic, I’m very proud of the children. The children love cleaning up their community. We did some issue-based sessions and they said they were frightened of needles that are left on the street. It’s quite scary for that age group.”

The children, aged between eight and 11, have recently purchased their own litter-picking set so they can carry out clean-ups more regularly.

Kelly added the group had also been doing some work around recycling and how to upcycle everyday items.

Out of 100 bags of rubbish collected, the majority was plastic bottles.

Copeland council’s community services manager, Janice Carrol, said: “It was great to see people out in the sunshine making a real difference to our surroundings. We’d like to say a big thank you and well done to everyone who took part.

“ Litter pollution, including single-use plastics which degrade the beauty of our environment and harm wildlife – is not acceptable

“Lots of youngsters had chosen to spend part of their Easter holidays doing this, and they collected a huge amount. They were well behaved and you could see they were keen to take pride in their area. They can be very proud of themselves.”

The two events were part of Keep Britain Tidy’s Great British Spring Clean, which aims to inspire communities and organisations to hold thousands of litter picking events across the country between March 22 and April 23.

The second clean-up, which took place in the afternoon, was on the Brows path through Arrowthwaite Woods, from Rosemary Lane up to Kells. This secluded area can be heavily littered and more than 50 bags of waste were collected here.