The Craven Herald: News from across skipton and surrounding areas.

The Craven Herald is spearheading a clean-up campaign to make our green and pleasant district that bit more… green and pleasant.

We are offering villages wanting to organise a litter-picking day the chance to have their event highlighted in the paper and on this website.

The campaign follows a number of such community events and the Herald hopes to encourage those thinking about organising one to get their gloves on and get out there.

The Herald knows from our Neighbourhood News columns that people in all the Dales villages are keen to see their landscape kept tidy.

Some communities have already mobilised their volunteers and got out onto the roads, wielding litter-grabbers and plastic bags. We salute these energetic citizens and all those townsfolk and villagers who are planning their own assaults on the mountains of paper, plastic and glass that will accumulate at beauty spots – and not-so-beautiful spots – over the coming months.

With such a vast area to cover, council workers can’t be expected to cope with it all and it’s a sign of healthy communities when people get together and clean up their own patches.

We want to encourage people to organise a litter-picking day in their own village, which we will highlight in the paper.

Craven District Council has agreed to support the Herald’s campaign and assist with the loan of litter-picker devices and will make arrangements with organisers to collect the filled bags from a designated spot.

Paul Florentine, the council’s waste and recycling manager, said: “I’m perfectly willing for organisers to get in touch with me at the district council offices so we can arrange collection. As long as there are no more than, say, two a week it shouldn’t be a problem.”

On a safety note, Mr Florentine is asking people not to put broken glass or sharp objects in the bags and, where possible, place them in a container for separate disposal.

• If you are organising something, let us know and we will highlight it in the Herald for you as well as on this website. Call our Newsdesk on 01756 794117.

• To liaise with the district council to organise the pick-up of bags, ring Mr Florentine on 01756 706320.