Hero litter picker collects a ton of litter from six miles of ‘dangerous’ Derbyshire roadside near Chesterfield

Charles Twigg, a member of Chesterfield Litter Pickers (CLP) group known as ‘The Chief’, almost single-handedly cleared the verges by a busy road between New Whittington and Eckington.

Charles started his clean up project on January 3 and completed 17 three-hour-long litter picking sessions on Wednesday, February 17.

The roadside was absolutely covered in rubbish and saw Charles collecting 88 bags with a shocking combined weight of around one ton.

He has additionally collected 3046 cans, which amounted to 17 full bags.

‘The Chief’ has been recognised for his hard work and was awarded with the Special Recognition Trophy at the first annual CLP awards ceremony last week.

Speaking about his litter pick, Charles said: “Massive thank you to my wife for supporting me and a thank you to Lee Brassington for helping me and picking some of the bags up along with NEDCC who pick some up as well. Hoping to do a maintenance pick around every six weeks.”

Chesterfield Litter Pickers praised Charles as one of the team's most prolific pickers.

Apart from clearing the road verges, ‘The Chief’ championed the CLP's community bin programme, making most of the bins himself from pallets.

He later distributed the bins across litter hotspots in Chesterfield with Lee, the founder and leader of Chesterfield Litter Pickers.

Charles’ efforts have been appreciated by the community with many praising his hard work.

Paul Smith said: “Your efforts should be on the front page of The Derbyshire Times and are worthy of regional and national attention. Back in the 60s I remember a Daily Express "Keep Britain Tidy" campaign.

"Another such campaign is desperately needed. Those on community service should be doing this work.”

Deborah Biggin commented: “People should be ashamed of themselves throwing this amount of rubbish, thank you all for your massive efforts and time doing this, it’s not easy, many many thanks.”

Lynn Mccrea added: “Absolutely amazing job, those that throw litter out ought to feel utterly ashamed of themselves, we live in such a beautiful country, litter louts and fly tippers ruin it for everyone else, including the wildlife living in these tiny spaces. Thank you for all your hard work.”