A GROUP of residents are taking part in a national campaign to keep their village sparkling.

As part of an initiative to ‘Clean Up Neilston’, the Neilston Little Pickers are urging others in the community to get involved.

Under the banner of Clean up Scotland and ran by Keep Scotland Beautiful, the environmental charity to date have had over 620,000 participants to remove over 6,000 tonnes of litter across the country.

Vicky Woods, from Neilston Little Pickers, told the Barrhead News: “Litter blights our landscape. The impact is not only visual – it reduces pride in our area and studies have shown that messy places can increase fear of crime and affect our health.

“It also costs us all a lot of money – the Council has to spend our council tax money cleaning up after irresponsible people, and we’d rather this money went on other services or stayed in our pockets.”

Derek Robertson, Chief Executive of Keep Scotland Beautiful, added: “The Neilston Litter Pickers are to be commended for the difference it is making to Neilston. The members take great pride in their surroundings and people like them are the foundation of our Clean Up Scotland campaign.

“At Keep Scotland Beautiful we want to make Scotland clean, green and more sustainable. The Neilston Litter Pickers are doing a fantastic job to help us achieve this goal.”

The litter pick will take place on April 28 and if you would like to join in, meet at The Bank, on the village’s Main Street at 12pm.