Balfour Beatty asked if litter picker Tom Collingwood can have a job

Elusive Tom Collingwood quietly goes around Herefordshire picking up discarded bottles, packets and other litter from roadside verges.

When the Hereford Times was able to meet up with him in 2021, he said that it is his love of cycling that led to his Herculean litter-picking missions. That, and having no TV or internet.

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But the mystery picker, who goes about his business quietly, leaving a trail of purple bags and clean verges in his wake, should now be given a job, a councillor has said.

Writing in the Frome Valley News parish magazine, Green Party Councillor Ellie Chowns, Herefordshire Council cabinet member for environment and economy, said she had personally written to contractors Balfour Beatty Living Places.

She said Mr Collingwood, who has previously tackled the A438 between Hereford and Ledbury and the A465 between the city and Abergavenny, had "single-handedly picked up over a thousand bags of litter over the past few years".

She said local WhatsApp groups had been "buzzing" with praise for him, adding: "I’ve personally written to Balfour Beatty to ask if they can give him a job.

"That degree of commitment, hard work, get up and go, and attention to detail surely deserve reward."

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Coun Chowns, who represents the Bishops Frome and Cradley ward and is the leader of the council's Green group, added: "Litter picking shows everybody that somebody cares.

"It shows that someone feels so strongly that they are prepared to put time into cleaning up someone else’s mess. It shows that we care about how our local places look, and it shows that we care about the impact of rubbish on the natural world; sharp metal, fragmenting plastic etc are all terrible for our local wildlife."

Coun Chowns, who was previously a member of the European Parliament, said people should celebrate litter picking and the "Tom Collingwoods of the world".

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