Nominate Doncaster's grotspots in national dirty dozen clean-up

With less than two months to go before the great clean-up weekend takes place on March 4, 5 and 6, Clean for The Queen director Adrian Evans is rallying the public to nominate the filthiest places in Britain. The closing date in January 31. The top dirty dozen will be chosen and announced in February and Clean for The Queen will undertake to clean them up.

Campaign director Adrian Evans also wants to hear from individuals, groups, schools, companies, sports teams - anyone who is keen to pick up litter in their local communities, with the aim of attracting one million people during the special clean-up weekend on March 4, 5 and 6 in time for The Queen’s 90th birthday. The clean-up is being supported by a host of major businesses, charities, local authorities and schools.

People should go to Clean for the Queen to register their interest in taking part and organising their own clean up. On the website people can find details of how to organise an event, how to get hold of equipment and information on ourgrot-spots and schools’ competitions.

Special edition ‘Clean for The Queen’ litter bags will be available from February onwards. Many local authorities will be able to provide the bags for collection free of charge. In addition, they’ll be available for free collection through selected branches of Costa and Waitrose across the country.

A recent survey conducted by Populus found that 90 per cent of respondents consider litter to be a massive issue, with 81 per cent saying that seeing litter makes them angry and frustrated. The Clean for The Queen event started off as a conversation between a handful of organisations, fed up with the continuing littering that affects the UK. Together, Country Life magazine, the Garfield Weston Foundation and the national charity Keep Britain Tidy, undertook to create the biggest clean up ever, with an ambition to get one million people engaged.

Adrian Evans said: “Our ambition is to create a community inspired, grass-roots mass action event – one that will become a recurring annual initiative. We feel that marking The Queen’s 90th birthday with the inaugural clean-up is a wonderful way to kick-start it to life.

"We want to show that millions of people in this country care passionately about the litter affecting the nation and are prepared to get out and do something about it. Everyone in this country will reap the benefits.”

Allison Ogden-Newton, chief executive, Keep Britain Tidy, said: "We have worked hard to gather a considerable amount of support and backing from charities, community groups, local authorities and businesses. This is the first time that all of the anti-litter organisations have come together to support a UK-wide anti-litter campaign.”

Melissa Murdoch, trustee of the Garfield Weston Foundation, said: “By picking up one piece of litter, you will have made a difference. It would be great to have one million volunteers joining in to make a difference to their local areas right across the UK!”

Television presenter Kirstie Allsopp is backing the campaign. She said: “I know all too well from my travels around the country that there are places that could do with some TLC. I would urge everyone to get involved with Clean for The Queen.”

Environment Minister Rory Stewart said: “Everyone has a responsibility to keep their community tidy and this campaign provides us with a great chance to protect our wildlife and improve the quality of our streets and public spaces. I hope it will help lead to a lasting legacy of a cleaner, tidier Britain.”

National organisations including Keep Britain Tidy, Keep Scotland Beautiful, Keep Wales Tidy and Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful, Country Life magazine, the RSPB, the National Federation of Women’s Institutes, Clean Up Britain, the Garfield Weston Foundation, and the CPRE, are all supporting the initiative. Clean for The Queen is being funded by generous donations from the Garfield Weston Foundation, the Lund Trust and a number of private individuals. McDonalds, Greggs, Costa, Wrigley and KFC have also provided financial support and their employees will be taking part in the clean-up weekend.