Can you help improve your town like this team of volunteers?

Volunteers from the council, beach clean squads and staff from local workplaces took part in group pick-ups at litter hot spots across the town.

A team of Hartlepool Borough Council countryside volunteers and local Tesco staff joined forces to help tidy up verges along Tees Road, while members of the Seaton Beach Squad took to the sands to clear away plastic waste and cans washed up on the shore.

Tony Hanson, Hartlepool Borough Council’s assistant director of environment and neighbourhood services, said: “It’s fantastic to see so many volunteers, from groups of residents to staff from local organisations, coming together in support of this important national campaign and taking pride in our town. Plastic, litter and pollution are big environmental issues, and hopefully by encouraging the wider public to go outdoors, get involved and play their part in keeping our town tidier on a regular basis, behaviours will begin to change and they will be problems that we gradually tackle together.”

Volunteers are a vital part of the council’s countryside section, offering up their free time every Tuesday and Thursday to complete practical conservation and site management tasks within green spaces and parks in Hartlepool.

For more information visit www.hartlepool.gov.uk/countryside-volunteers. More information about the Seaton Beach Squad can be found by searching @The Seaton Beach Squad on Facebook.