LITTER pickers cleaned up a park as part of a scheme to encourage residents to tackle environmental issues impacting their community.

This morning, volunteers wearing high visibility jackets joined officers from Waltham Forest’s Safer Neighbourhood Team, and staff from the Hoe Street McDonalds in Walthamstow, to spend a few hours clearing Stoneydown Park in Walthamstow of rubbish.

The event was organised as part of the Capital Clean-Up campaign, an annual initiative which encourages Londoners to keep their borough tidy.

A quarter of all litter on London’s streets is created by packaging from fast-food outlets, so McDonalds has got involved to help tackle the problem.

Staff at its Walthamstow restaurant identified Stoneydown Park as a key “grot spot” where litter is an ongoing problem, and they will choose two more areas to clear up this month.

Walthamstow McDonald’s franchisee Zulfikar Somji said: “We all want to feel proud of where we live and initiatives such as this offer people the chance to become part of the solution for a cleaner and greener London.”

Keep Britain Tidy chief executive Phil Barton said: “The problem we have with litter across London is well-documented with our recent report highlighting that a quarter of all litter on our streets can be attributed to fast-food outlets.

“Having worked with them before it is encouraging to see McDonald’s continuing to take a responsible stance with regards to litter management and we hope that their commitment to Capital Clean-Up will encourage other food outlets to look at tackling the problem in a similar way.”

For more information on the Capital Clean-up, visit capitalstandards.com/cleanup/events/