Our friends at Discover Welling have launched 'The Tour of Welling', a series of community tidy-up events during the Great British Spring Clean fortnight, and we joined the first stop on the Tour.

Four of us gathered with the Discover Welling team and a local councillor for an afternoon litter pick at Shoulder of Mutton Green. Just a couple of hours earlier we’d been basking in decent weather at a task at Lesnes Abbey, but by the time we arrived in Welling, the sun had clocked off. The sky had turned an ominous shade of grey and a bitter wind was whistling around the Green trying to steal our bin bags.

Did that stop us? Of course not.

We scoured the Green for rubbish, and there was plenty to keep us busy. Into the bags went the usual culprits: vodka bottles, beer cans, cigarette butts, crisp packets, sweet wrappers, disposable cups and fast-food cartons.

But every litter pick has its surprises and mysteries.

Among the more unusual finds were a tea strainer and a pair of shoes. Were they connected? Was someone once brewing a cuppa on the Green before abandoning their footwear? We'll never know!

After an hour of teamwork and nattering we’d built up a pile of bin bags ready for the council to collect next week.

With the clouds looking more and more threatening, we made a timely retreat home just before the rain arrived.

A good job well done and stage one on the Tour of Welling completed!

Huge thanks to Jacqui from GG Brent for travelling north-to-south to lend a hand.

The sun was shining and there was some warmth in the air as five of us joined the Friends of Lesnes Abbey and Woods for their monthly community litter pick.

After a friendly welcome from the group, we split into smaller teams and set off in different directions to hunt down discarded rubbish.

With no fixed route to follow, we wandered the paths and let curiosity lead the way, with swathes of bright yellow daffodils making us feel that perhaps spring has finally arrived.

Thankfully, the paths we walked in the park and woods were pretty tidy, but our litter-picking skills mostly came into play along the road just outside the boundary, which was in need of some TLC.

After an hour of fresh air, gentle wandering, and plenty of nice chat we returned to the starting point with our bags of collected litter, ready for the council to whisk them away.

It was fantastic to welcome Alican and Karina to their very first GoodGym task! We hope you had a great time and we’re looking forward to seeing you at many more sessions!

It’s the first day of the Great British Spring Clean, and there are loads of litter-picking events popping up across Bexley over the next fortnight.

First up was Bexleyheath, where four GoodGymers joined the Love Where You Live community tidy-up co-organised by our friends at Discover Welling.

A large crowd in hi-viz set off on a 2.5km circular route around the roads surrounding the shopping centre. The bright yellow wave of litter pickers was quite a sight for shoppers and motorists!

We were so busy collecting rogue rubbish that we completely forgot to take photos along the way. Luckily we did manage to snap Ashton after he wrestled a stray blue supermarket wheely basket out of some very determined bushes. 🛒🌿

It was a lovely group to be part of, and somewhere along the route we completely lost count of the number of bags we filled between us.

Of course, we’d all much prefer it if people took their rubbish (and dog poo bags and cigarette butts!) home with them in the first place. But thanks to everyone’s efforts, the streets we covered are definitely looking a little tidier today.