Blitz an Open Space

The annual award for a significant contribution to the North Herts community has been won by Brian Noble for his work to clear the litter around Baldock and Letchworth. During Covid in 2020 Brian saw the build-up of litter around Baldock and Letchworth and decided to clear as much of it as he could. He assembled a group of volunteers and bought all the equipment himself. At the suggestion of LALG’s William Armitage, Brian started a new litterpicking group within LALG called Blitz an Open Space. After five years with four sessions each month the teams of volunteers have collected 2,494 full bags of litter. The group also gets support from North Herts Council, who now provide the equipment and take the full bags away. Well done Brian and all the volunteers who have given up their spare time to support Brian’s great effort to benefit the local community.

We usually try to avoid picking in the rain, but this time it was unexpected and we had to cut short our usual 2 hour session. Despite the on/off rain we managed to pick up 20 bags of rubbish in Baldock this Sunday. Seven of us split into two groups - one around London Road and Weston Way, the other along Clothall Road towards Buntingford. Well done team!

Young student William contacted our litter picking group to volunteer as part of the Duke of Edinburgh bronze award. We were only too happy for the extra help to keep Baldock tidy and invited him to our October session. He readily took on board the necessary safety requirements, quickly mastered the use of our litter picking equipment, and began to search out the rubbish around the Letchworth Road area. He collected several full bags of litter and also attended our November session along London Road. Afterwards our friends at the Council collected his full bags for safe disposal. We’d like to thank William for his excellent contribution to the Baldock community and look forward to his further help at our litter picking sessions in the coming months. 

Hi everyone, today  we collected  11 bags of rubbish ( making the grand total of 2304 to date ) a mattress , supermarket trolley, broken lawn mower , and various metal objects. All the items were found on the Letchworth Garden City Greenway  where it passes the field at the top of Webb Close . The council will collect the rubbish tomorrow. Two weeks ago we cleared along Norton Road in Baldock, including fly tip rubbish and 49 gas cylinders on Norton Bury Lane.

Sadly more fly tipping appeared the next day, but our friend Pauline at the Council quickly took action to take this away. Thankyou. 

As summer came to an end we still enjoyed many sunny days, but rain sadly interfered with some of our litter picking. However, on a damp Sunday evening at the end of the amazing "Balstock" music event a small team volunteered to help clear up the litter in the High Street in support of local charities. If any new volunteers would like to join us on any of our 4-times-a-month litter picking sessions at Baldock or Letchworth, then please e-mail the Group Contact. Also, we will be at the AGM if you'd like to chat about rubbish!

The long summer grass has hidden litter in the undergrowth, but our happy team of pickers have managed to find plenty to fill our bags this month. Heavy gas cylinders are still everywhere in Baldock & fly-tipping is still a concern. We enjoy what we do, so will keep picking for Baldock. Our Letchworth group led by Ian has also picked lots too, taking our grand total to 2,150 bags!

Just three of us took on loads of litter in the lay-by on Jacks Hill north of Graveley. Myself with Sally and Brian picked 11 bags of rubbish, the remains of a fridge, a couple of road signs and a lorry exhaust box. It was only 5 weeks ago we collected 37 bags from the same area. Our overall total of  bags collected since Brian started the Letchworth and Baldock groups over 4 years ago now stands at 2,087. Well done to all involved.

Brian N has retired from leading the Blitz an Open Space group after 4+ years, collecting a grand total of 2,016 bags of litter from the open spaces of Letchworth & Baldock. Brian will continue as an important & active part of the team. Ian M takes over from Brian to organise the Letchworth section, whilst Gary M looks after the Baldock section.

We sadly lost an enthusiastic and long serving volunteer from our Baldock litter picking team. John was a steady and reliable member, with a quiet and humble nature. He also volunteered for Friends of Baldock Green Spaces and Friends of Norton Common after retiring from Trinity College, Cambridge a few years ago. We hope to plant a tree in his memory.

Brian, Ian and I lead a 30 strong team of Scouts to earn their Community Litter Picking badges. Armed with torches, pickers and bags the enthusiastic boys and girls managed to collect 18 bags of rubbish.

In the week before Christmas our team blitzed the Great North Road from Salisbury Road up to the Service Station and left 12 full bags of litter on the corner of Radwell Lane for our friends at the local council to pick up. We finished the session with a welcome cup of tea at Greggs, ending a successful year of keeping the Baldock streets tidy. Thank you to all those involved from our volunteers, council staff, equipment donors, local councillor and the group leaders. Happy new year!

Last month we shared some of our picking equipment with Osbourne Court in Baldock so their residents could help clear litter in the local area. Good luck Jo with your litter picking!

On the evening of Thursday 5th September Brian and I held a successful litter picking session with a large group of Letchworth Scouts at Baldock Road Park. We collected nine bags of rubbish in one hour before the daylight disappeared. A special thanks to Ryan of FB Chain Ltd who donated a new supply of litter pickers for our use.

After searching for litter around Baldock, not enough could be found to send teams to clear up. Not that there isn't any litter about, but it seems to be hidden amongst the long vegetation or is sparsely spread around a wide area. So we've decided to cancel the 2 sessions planned for this Wednesday & Sunday, then hopefully restart next month on July 17th & 21st.

Please let Gary or Brian know of any areas that are of concern email: Litter@LALG.org

On Saturday 11 May, 7 of us picked litter along Letchworth Gate and collected 18 bags of rubbish.  However, it was from the longabout that we collected 13 bags of empty wine bottles which I estimate contained some 350 bottles! This brings the total bags collected in both Letchworth and Baldock to 1520.

On 10 February a collection along Letchworth Gate produced 23 bags of litter.  These contained 20 glass wine bottles, most were empty but some contained a liquid that smelt like urine. All the bottles were picked up from the longabout near the petrol station.