Peterborough man completes 12 mile marathon A47 litter pick - and moves on to Fletton Parkway

A Peterborough volunteer and a team of willing helpers who have spent the last three months clearing the A47 in the city of rubbish have started their next project – the verges on the Fletton Parkway.

Mark Fishpool and his team started clearing the A47 at Eye Green several months ago – and earlier this month reached Castor, having cleared a 12 mile stretch, clearing both sides of the busy road – heading out come rain or shine.

The final stretch was cleared during The Great British Spring Clean earlier this month.

Mark said: “It all started in my street. It wasn’t getting cleaned, so I cut the grass, planted a few plants and picked the litter. I’m a bit stubborn, so it carried on from there really. Once I started on the A47, it was important to finish.”

To get the job done, Mark started his own litter picking group, called ‘Pride In Our Community Association Peterborough.’ The group has its own Facebook page, and has seen a number of volunteers come and help him over the past few months.

During that time, the group have pulled huge amounts of rubbish from the verges, with the team priding themselves on doing a ‘proper job’ and going into the undergrowth to retrieve the rubbish, rather than just clearing the visible bits by the side of the road.

While there are scores of cans and plastic bottles to clear up, other items piled up in the back of the van. Earlier this year Mark told the Peterborough Telegraph how the team had even found cannabis by the side of the road – but there were other A47 discoveries that caused surprise.

Mark said: “We find an amazing amount of car parts by the side of the road. We probably found enough to build our own car buy the end of it.”We have found money – £20 notes that have just ended up in the bushes, people’s credit cards – all sorts..

"We find alcohol bottles, that are worrying if people are drinking behind the wheel.

"At one location we found a stash of 200 energy drink cans – all the same brand.”

Since finishing his A47 run, he has made a couple of trips back along the route to check on locations, and cleared a small amount of litter that had been dropped there.

He said: “We have had people say thanks to us, and give us a beep as we go along. People see the side of the roads being much cleaner. Before we did it, it was not a good advert for Peterborough, if people just saw a sea of litter.”

Having finished the A47, Mark has now started clearing the litter from the Fletton Parkway between Stanground and Hampton. All the rubbish he collects is taken to the Household Recycling Centre

For more information on volunteering to help Mark, visit https://www.facebook.com/groups/607032641304302