A MALMESBURY teenager is hoping to continue his quest to keep the town clean this year.

Ben Thornbury, 16, founded Helping The Community Of Malmesbury with neighbour Julie Taylor in 2017.

Since then the group has gone from strength to strength and now has more than 500 members, many of whom regularly give up their time to pick up litter off the street.

And the group has been kept particularly busy in the last week. On Saturday night a bin full of glass bottles was pushed down steps round the back of the King's Arms pub and the steps coming up from Daniels Well.

"Two of our regular volunteers Tone Rudall and his wife Becky were straight out the door to deal with one set of steps, while two of the King's Arms staff dealt with the second lot of steps," explained Ben.

And Ben and Tone leapt into action again on Tuesday when a large commercial wheelie bin filled with litter bags was pushed into the river.

"We had to take all the bags out and try and get the water out of the bin which we did and got it back onto land at the Daniel's Well allotments," said Ben.

"The police have been very supportive and want to know the necessary information which is great and they will be keeping an eye out."

Asked about his aims for 2022 Ben added: "My hopes with the group this year is to continue our proactive response to situations that face us.

"Nothing is too much of a challenge for our volunteers and when we are made aware of something we do our best to sort it.

"This year an 'adopt my street' scheme is hopefully going to be set up where residents can adopt a street and keep it clean alongside a Malmesbury town councillor.

"And we now have our new website which has a tally on which will give us more of an insight into the litter problem we are facing and give us an idea how much time is being volunteered."

Visit helpingcleanmalmesbury.co.uk for more information about the group.