Founder of Northants Litter Wombles says recent prestigious award win is ‘one for the team’

The founder of the Northants Litter Wombles, who recently won a prestigious local award, says she could not have done it alone and it is “one for the team”.

Nicola Elliott was the winner of the Green Award at the BBC Make A Difference ceremony at the end of last month and says it was “an honour to be among such worthy folk”.

Since the group was founded, more than 70,000 bags of litter have been collected – and this milestone was celebrated by the award win.

Nicola’s litter picking journey began a year before the Northants Litter Wombles was founded, when she set up her own village group where she lives in West Haddon.

The group used to pay particular attention to a nearby layby in Crick and over the course of four weekends, they would typically collect 160 bags of litter.

The start of the Litter Wombles stemmed from Nicola seeing a negative special media post about the amount of litter that remained after some flooding in January 2021.

As people expressed their disgust online, Nicola said she was happy to go along and clear it with her equipment – and asked if anyone else wanted to join.

After a lot of interest, it sparked the idea that people across the entire county may be interested in doing their bit.

With litter picking friends that had set up wider groups in other regions, Nicola described the way they “held her hand” while she got it off the ground.

“Recording the number of bags collected was a way of incentivising people to do it,” Nicola told this newspaper. “The group has evolved and I never dreamt it would get as big as it has.”

Within the first couple of months, Nicola was inundated with offers of support from group members on social media.

As Nicola soon realised running the group was time consuming, she says she is “lucky” to now have a team of half a dozen people who work hard behind the scenes.

It is Kevin that goes into schools to deliver litter assemblies and has addressed around 16,000 children across the county to date.

Nicola shared that the key is to educate people not to drop litter in the first place, rather than needing more hands on deck to clear it.

“We’re educating the next generation,” said Nicola.

When asked how it feels to have received the Green Award from the BBC at the end of September, she said: “It was such a surprise. You go to these events and there are so many other worthy people. I was honoured to be there.”

Nicola was sat next to a lady who had a heart attack five years ago and has since raised enough money for 25 defibrillators to be installed across the county.

The group founder agreed that it is a step in the right direction that the BBC had an award to recognise those working hard to be greener.

“The green agenda is becoming quite prominent these days,” she said. “We can’t keep ignoring the problems. We do our little bit towards making the environment a cleaner, safer and better place to be.”

Nicola shared that the Wombles operate with the motto that “litter breathes litter” and if people see rubbish in an area, they are more likely to drop it – as they know someone will already have to visit and clean up.

When asked what message she wants to send to our readers about the importance and ease of litter picking, Nicola said: “It really is easy to do, and I’ve met some fabulous people through it.”

Those wanting to get involved can simply reach out to Northants Litter Wombles and they will be provided with litter pickers, hi-vis jackets and rubbish bags.

Nicola described the experience as “rewarding”, particularly when you take before and after pictures to see how much of a difference has been made.

Whether people do it alone, with family members or attend organised groups, Nicola says she has “never regretted going out litter picking” and it has benefited her mental health and wellbeing.

For more information, you can visit Northants Litter Wombles’ Facebook page here.