A month-long campaign to clean up Forest Town included a community litter pick.

Volunteers, including children from Paper Moon Day Nursery (pictured), gathered at the Sandlands Way retail park to give the area a thorough clean-up, collecting more than 15 bags of rubbish.

The council’s cleansing team also collected waste from the site during a deep cleansing project for Forest Town.

Among those picking up litter was deputy mayor Coun Mick Barton, one the driving forces behind the Tidy Together campaign.

He said: “We cleared an amazing amount of litter and the area looks a lot better now. I would like to thank everyone who took part and council officers who put this campaign together and have been brilliant.

“If this campaign is a success, I hope it will stay like this. But this depends on the community doing their bit by binning their litter every time.”

Council neighbourhood wardens will be patrolling from early in the morning until late at night, when the retail park closes, to catch litter droppers and issue them with £75 penalty notices.

Schools and community groups are also being encouraged to support the campaign by organising litter picks, design posters and stickers, and sign-up for training as a champions of the area.

Businesses, including Asda, Costa Coffee, KFC, Shine Dental Surgery, Jango’s, Fillets and the Foxglove pub, pledged to support the campaign and to improve their own litter picking operations.

The campaign was sparked by an increase in complaints about litter being dropped by customers of takeaways and shops on the retail park are