National Highways CEO joins Cambridge litter pick in support of Great British Spring Clean

National Highways' Chief Executive, Nick Harris, joined the efforts of local volunteers this week to collect litter and remove tree guards on the A428 Hardwick Interchange, in support of the Great British Spring Clean.

32 bags of rubbish were collected and over 12,000 tree guards removed during two days of action involving staff from National Highways and contractors from the organisation's supply chain. Three large hibernaculum's -which are underground chambers that amphibians and reptiles use during the winter to protect themselves from the cold - were also constructed on grass verges using recycled splints from the tree guards.

As part of a targeted effort to coincide with the Great British Spring Clean, litter picks have taken place on the M3 J19, M25 J28 and M25 J10, and across the South East and East region of the road network during the last two weeks. This is in addition to the regular litter picks that take place across the network every day.

Some of the more eclectic items uncovered included two wigs, ski goggles, 4 industrial batteries, vapes, a frying pan and cutlery.

Speaking about the issue of litter, Nick Harris, Chief Executive of National Highways, said:

"According to Keep Britain Tidy more than two million pieces of litter are dropped in the UK every day. Much of it ends up on the strategic road network.

"Litter is a visual blight, and a safety issue, blocking drains, causing flooding, and blowing around or obstructing carriageways. We take our duties under the Environmental Protection Act (1990) extremely seriously: every day our teams are collecting litter from the road network.

"Having recently taken part in a litter pick I have seen at first hand that litter ranges from sweet wrappers to plastic bottles, fast food containers to drinks cans, cigarette butts to, unbelievably, human waste (disposing of this involves specialist teams and, inevitably, more taxpayers' money). Many of the 1.3 million vapes discarded in the UK each week end up on our roadsides too.

"Once we've picked litter, it returns quickly, particularly around motorway service area slip roads and at junctions. Undeterred, we're working with partner organisations to target behaviour change initiatives, ramp up enforcement activities, increase litter picking and improve litter disposal options.

"Discarded food, fruit cores and peels are also litter. In a survey National Highways ran, almost a third of respondents thought that throwing an apple core or leftover food onto the road benefitted wildlife. The reality is that it can cause immense harm."

Recent figures from the RSPCA revealed that it had received over 10,000 reports of animals found injured, trapped or dead from discarded litter in the last three years - nearly 10 per day.

"We think most people in our nation of animal lovers would be shocked if they knew the impact of litter on wildlife - possibly shocked enough to change their behaviour. That's why it's the subject of our new anti-littering campaign 'Lend a Paw - bin your litter.' This aims to highlight the impact littering can have on wildlife.

Allison Ogden-Newton, Chief Executive of environmental charity Keep Britain Tidy, said:

"Drivers mindlessly tossing their rubbish out of their windows is a blight on our country and does untold harm to our wildlife, as well as making our country looked dirty and unloved.

"We welcome National Highways stepping up to the challenge of tackling this environmental vandalism with their new initiatives and we look forward to seeing the results and, if successful, their roll-out across the nation's road network.

"In the meantime, it is great to have their support for this year's Great British Spring Clean. Thousands of volunteers will clear more than 350,000 bags of rubbish from our streets, parks and beaches during the campaign but they cannot clean up the motorway slip roads and central reservations that are so often covered with litter, so it is great that National Highways are doing their own litter-picks."

National Highways complies with its duties under the Environmental Protection Act and is responsible for collecting litter from England's motorways and a small number of A-roads. It works closely with partners, including local authorities, who collect litter on most of the country's A-roads.

Get more information on the Great British Spring Clean.

Notes to Editors

National Highways is the wholly government-owned company responsible for modernising, maintaining and operating England's motorways and major A roads.

Real-time traffic information for England'smotorways and major A roads is available via the Traffic England website, local and national radio travel bulletins, electronic road signs and mobile apps. Local Twitter services are also available.

For further information please contact National Highways' press office (24hrs) on 0844 693 1448 and select the most appropriate option:

Option 1: National enquiries (9am to 5.30pm) and out of hours for urgent enquiries
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