CHIPPENHAM Mayor David Powell believes the town’s recent litter pick campaign has helped to change people’s attitudes towards rubbish, and is hopeful this will improve the situation in the future.

The town council’s #chipplitterpick campaign called on everyone in the town to pick up at least one piece of rubbish on Monday and to make a difference, after an area known as the black swamp in Monkton Park was named as one of the UK’s top "grot spots" in March.

Over the course of the Bank Holiday weekend, groups of litter pickers were out and about collecting rubbish at various locations.

“The idea was to raise people’s awareness of the problem and to pick up the stuff that’s dropped,” said Cllr Powell.

“Overall I’m quite pleased with the response that I saw and driving around I noticed that things look better.

“When we were out a lot of people passed comment saying well done and it was a positive response.

“The manager at Wilkinsons was kind enough to let us put our rubbish in their skip and also give us new bags as me and my wife collected that much.

“I was really pleased to see four groups of young people out from St Paul’s Church out around the town on Sunday and I know Kings Lodge School plan to do a litter pick on May 14.”

Chippenham Town Council is not required by law to clean the streets but provides top up cleaning for the services Wiltshire Council provides.

The town council currently spends almost £45,000 per year on street cleaning, and has cleaners picking up rubbish seven days a week from 8am-6pm in the High Street and from Cepen Park North to Pewsham.

“We got people to understand more what the town council does,” added Cllr Powell.

“We got people to ask questions rather than make statements and I would like to think that people now have a better understanding what the town council does.”