LITTER pickers came together to clean-up Riverside Park in Burnham after the festive period.

Last year, a group of Burnham residents and councillors formed the group “I Love Burnham” on Facebook, with the aim of getting residents together who wanted to make a positive change to the town and surrounding areas.

A number of complaints had been made about the state of Riverside Park with considerable amounts of rubbish and other litter left near the marina and other green areas.

To get the New Year off to a positive start, several members of the group met on Sunday at the park armed with litter pickers, gloves and bin bags and filled more than 20 sacks full of dropped rubbish.

The group now has more than 80 members online, and hopes to continue with regular collections and broaden out into the rest of the Dengie 100 peninsula.

Admin and town councillor Vanessa Bell said: “The aim of this group is to get like-minded people together who really care about Burnham and want to help make it as beautiful as we can.

“We're lucky enough to live in one of the most gorgeous places I know and I believe that together we can keep it that way.”

Fellow admin Sherif Harding said: "Perhaps understandably, given the significant reductions in funding from central Government, environmental services in Maldon District Council have become very stretched, leading to a group of locals to take matters into their own hands, forming a Facebook group tasked with creating initiatives to enable the local community to fill these gaps.

"The expectation is that these actions will make the area more welcoming and safe for children, dogs, and the rich wildlife alike, and there are longer term plans for large scale environmental cleans in more remote locations such as Bradwell beach."

To join the group, visit http://bit.ly/2EkaHGf.