It is now even easier for Dorchester residents - and visitors - to help keep our lovely town tidy and litter free.

As well as offering litter picker equipment available to loan, Dorchester Town Council is hosting two litter pick events as part of Keep Britain Tidy's Great British Spring Clean on April 1 and 8 from 10am to 12noon. Meet at the Borough Gardens Bandstand.

People can collect equipment to venture around the town to find as much litter as they can. Those under 16 must be accompanied by an adult.

However, litter picking equipment is available from Dorchester Town Council all year round and there are '2Minute Litter Pick' boards around the town, by the kiosk in the Borough Gardens and Loving by Nature on London Road. There will soon be one at the Pavilion in the Park in Poundbury.

Tamara Umasanker, environmental development assistant at Dorchester Town Council, said: "We are very excited that we are able to loan out pickers to members of our community.

"Dorset is blessed with beautiful coastlines and great wildlife. Sadly, litter has a huge impact on both. What's worse is that each piece of plastic litter has potential to turn into microplastics which are even harder to remove. Every piece of litter that is picked up will benefit someone."

Volunteers who borrow pickers are also being encouraged to carry out a simple survey during litter picks and upload findings online, as part of a citizen science project called Preventing Plastic Pollution that is being led by a Dorset-based team from Queen Mary University of London.

Amanda Arnold, Preventing Plastic Pollution researcher, said: "Collecting data on the types and amounts of plastic in the environment is key to tackling the main sources of plastic pollution.

"We really hope that supplying this litter picking equipment will inspire volunteers to itemise and weigh the litter collected. You will not only be helping to remove litter but capture data that will make a valuable contribution to developing a transferable tool to predict litter hotspots, so activities in other areas to reduce plastic pollution can be targeted more effectively."

A Dorchester town councillor has taken the initiative to set up her own litter picking group in Poundbury. Cllr Frances Hogwood and her 27 members each have their own pickers, they all commit at least an hour a week to helping keep Poundbury clean. She wants to encourage people to take advantage of the town council's pickers and set up their own local picks. She of course would love to see more people picking in Poundbury too.

Cllr Hogwood said: "Litter picking is fun as the group of 27 Poundbury litter pickers will confirm - don't let anyone tell you otherwise. You never quite know what interesting discoveries you might make and it's also sociable, not infrequently people out walking will want to talk and that's your chance to pass on the message about plastic pollution.

"It can be an ideal pastime for obsessives too because there is always the tantalising worry that you have missed something.

"One local firm takes part as part of their community work as well as promoting health and wellbeing through the exercise involved.

"The initial trigger to organise ourselves was environmental concern as most litter is plastic or plastic based and highly damaging to wildlife, both land based and marine – most plastic pollution in the sea originates from land."

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