Seven GGers met with Jenny from City of York Council for one of a series of litter picks GG has carried out in parks and public areas around the City in the past week. Grange Park has a children's play area and several large fields surrounded by woodland and bushes. Jenny provided us with litter pickers and bags and off we went. Laura headed for the play area and with Jenny and John cleared loads of sweet wrappers and cans from around the children playing on the swings, some of whom helped! Egg, Ellie, Lizzie, Digby the Dog and Paul found a secret dell filled to the brim with beer cans and detritus, including various items of clothing which quickly filled their bags. Leanne headed for another secret dell where she was soon joined by the others clearing a small area that kept them occupied for an hour. But despite this Leanne and Jenny were pleased to see that overall the lasting effects of their litter pick last year were still in evidence. We ended in the dark with a socially distanced photo taken by Jenny who thanked us for our efforts.

After some minor disputes regarding the actual meeting place, we all agreed that Ed was right all along and we were where we were supposed to be.

We then swiftly split into 3 groups, in the pursuit of 'litter hotspots' spread throughout the backies. Team 1 led by Bec headed towards the Clifton way entrance and tackled hotspot 1. Fortunately the were aided by scout leader Michael, who issued a stern telling off to some apple-throwing youths.

Team 2, led by Amy, headed towards the pond and a popular littering bench for hot spot 2. After much wrestling with spikey things the were soon filling up their bags with empty beer cans.

Whilst team 3 'led' by Ed wandered through the woods (which had almost certainly been litter-picked recently) looking for 2 metal benches that we were beginning to think didn't actually exist!

Fortunately Legendary Leanne lived up to her name and spotted the benches and a litter-picker's jackpot. Amongst the haul Johnny B snaffled a load of torn up exercise books as well as a copy of Roald Dahl's 'Boy'.

The 3 teams then regrouped back at the meeting place before some headed out for a social run.