Jag Kahlon, who teaches at a school in Romford, has been on solo litter picking trips at Havering Country Park for several weekends in a row in an effort to clear up the “shocking” amount of rubbish at the park.
During one of these trips on March 23, Jag “spent three hours” picking up rubbish around the entrance of the park – managing to collect three bags of recycling and two black bin bags of rubbish in this area alone.
The teacher, who lives in Collier Row, believes the litter problem has been “getting worse” in recent months and is putting residents off visiting the park.
Jag told the Recorder she believes the park is badly maintained.
“It’s awful – the litter is making Havering Park not a nice place to visit, which is really sad because when people stop going to green spaces is when they become even more neglected.
“You don’t want to go there because it’s so horrible now.
“In the end I got so sick of it and so cross, I just thought something needs to be done.”
The rubbish Jag has spotted includes food packaging, car parts and old furniture – but a big part of the issue is dumped nitrous oxide canisters, she says.
She told this paper she was “appalled” to find almost 50 of these canisters -also known as laughing gas – littered around paths and bushes during one litter pick, and another 20 the following weekend.
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The primary school teacher reported the issue to Havering Council, and has since arranged a meeting with a member of the Havering Country Park team to discuss the litter problem more generally.
But she says more needs to be done, including putting more bins in the park.
Jag told the Recorder: “There’s barely any bins, and any bins that are there are overflowing and not looked at.
“I feel like it is very easy to tackle this problem but no one is doing it.
“It shouldn’t just be down to one person.”
A spokesperson for Havering Council said Havering Country Park is inspected once a month, and that bins are emptied at least once a week.
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The spokesperson added: “During bin emptying, our country park rangers will also litter pick the immediate area around the bins and main paths.
“As part of the Where We Live campaign, we have welcomed the support of our local community who have been instrumental in helping us, including our ‘Friends of’ and the Wombles groups.
“Whilst we absolutely do have a responsibility to maintain the parks, we also urge visitors to be respectful and dispose of their litter correctly.”
