New ambassadors The Litter Ladies and Lads of Portchester host book reading ahead of March beach clean

Five women, from Portchester, first began litter picking during lockdown in May 2020 on their lunch breaks after noticing a rubbish problem in their area, and from there The Litter Ladies That Lunch was born.

Having met at school, Claire Turner, Emma Wells, Hazel Fenn, Tina Mouland and Kerry Brown reunited and found common ground in their passion for conservation, creating the organisation with the aim of restoration and education, arranging group litter picks and events to help clean-up Portchester Castle and surrounding areas.

Graphic designer and one of the co-founder’s of The Litter Ladies, Claire, said; ‘Only around 15 per cent of the recycling in our bins gets recycled because of cross-contamination, we want to help educate people and change that.’

On Saturday at 11am, the group are teaming up with The 3 Engineers, Nick Parker, Matt Baron and Jon Lakin to become The Litter Ladies and Lads (that lunch), hosting a reading of their book The Adventures of Scout, from Portchester Library.

With no previous experience in the field, The 3 Engineers began a side-project in 2018, to write a rhyming children's book which aims to bring awareness of environmental issues.

‘Our aim is to inspire the next generation to take small positive action to better the world,’ say the engineer trio.

The reading of The Adventures of Scout is one of the events organised by the group of ladies, ahead of their beach clean on March 6, to gain traction for their initiative for conservation and recycling.

‘It’s all about adopting small lifestyle changes to reduce waste,’ said Claire.

The group maintains that everyone can do their part to help clear the shoreline and keep it safe and litter-free for the animals and people that use it.

‘We have known The Litter Ladies That Lunch for some time now and absolutely love what they are doing,’ said engineer Nick.

‘They have become our first ambassadors where we hope our books can be used as a fun educational resource, followed up by great community projects such as theirs,’ he added.

The next litter pick will take place on March 6, from Portchester Castle at 8am to 10am, but the ladies say all help is welcomed at any point and for any length of time.

The group are also offering schools the chance to have a private class reading of the newly published The Adventures of Scout and a chance to win a free T-shirt.

To find out more about the project visit litterladies.org.uk or to donate justgiving.com/crowdfunding/lltl.

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