Children at Wigton Infant School are taking a stand against litter are calling on their community to support them.

The six and seven-year-olds were so shocked by the amount of rubbish they spotted during a walk round Wigton, they decided to launch their own campaign.

Sixty pupils from the school’s two Year 2 classes wrote powerful letters to the community, highlighting the devastating environmental impact of littering urging people to take their rubbish home.

The letters were then sent to Wigton Town Council and discussed by councillors at a recent meeting.

The messages prompted the council to team up with the children for a community litter pick in Phoenix Park, next to the infant school.

In just a few hours, they collected several bags full of rubbish from the park and surrounding streets. This included lots of plastic food and drink packaging – which the children were concerned would otherwise have ended up in our rivers and oceans.

Council chairman Elaine Lynch said: “Wigton Town councillors were delighted to help the children from Wigton Infants in their litter pick.

“They had written to the council with their concerns about the litter in Wigton and were wanting to do something about it. Councillors were keen to help and were very impressed with the children’s enthusiasm to care for the environment.

“It was good to see our youngsters looking after Wigton. Well done.”

Geoff Norman, headteacher at Wigton Infant School, said: “We are very proud of the work the children have done. They have made a practical improvement to the park and have felt empowered to become ambassadors for the health of our local environment.

“We hope that this is just the start of an increased contribution from our school to the wider community.”

The children are now calling on the people of Wigton to help them keep the town tidy and protect the environment by taking rubbish home and recycle where possible. They are also designing posters to be displayed around the town.