Category Archives: Pix and Picks

Back to the task in hand for the second month in a row, and although we had some tidying up of where we cleared last month, we were able to move on to ‘pastures’ new (‘pastures’ is probably the least accurate description of the places we cleaned up!). Overall it was an amazingly good litterpicking session with a staggering 19 bags of litter collected overall. We haven’t got a pic of the complete collection of bags as the collection lorry arrived part way through.

As usual our volunteers ensured that as many of the ‘facilities’ as possible were visited in an attempt to get rid of both the sexual debris – which we are especially looking for – as well as the general litter left by a range of users of the area.

The majority of our signs, asking cruisers to take their litter away with them, were in place and are having the desired effect. Many thanks to those guys who, rather than throwing stuff on the ground or in the bushes, take it away with them. After all, there are bins around for stuff that you don’t want to take with you. An OWL volunteer has placed a dustbin along the track and it is well-used; but it is not approved of by the City of London Corporation who manage the Forest, although they tolerate it. OWL believes that there should be more bins, better-placed, like there are at Hampstead Heath.

A welcome refreshment break, then back to work with plenty of litter still to be collected.

Another enjoyable morning together with an excellent amount of litter collected and an appropriate camaraderie between participants.

The first of this year’s sessions, we knew we had lots to do to get back to the eventual cleanliness we achieved last year. So, despite the rain we headed off into the woods, our plan being to try to make an impact on those areas which would be most likely to be seen by other users of the area. These are the areas most likely to generate complaints.

With a few guys working at each of the ‘hotspots’ we can quickly turn what many will feel is offensive sexual debris into a much more pleasant-looking area. At the ‘hotspots’ we routinely pick up: used condoms, condom sachets, lube sachets, wipes and tissues, old poppers bottles, kamagra packets, vinyl gloves as well as empty bottles and cans.

We aren’t ‘do-gooders’ or anything like that! We want cruising to continue and feel that that will be helped by lessening the number of complaints about the litter which many, possibly understandably, find offensive.

We weren’t sorry to take a break for refreshments, when we could also catch up with a friendly Forest Ranger whose approach and attitude to the activities in the area are refreshingly supportive – unlike so many of his colleagues!

Our final haul for the day – 9 sacks, mainly of sexual debris, to add to the two sacks collected yesterday.

We had one further task to complete – replacing last year’s signs with some fresh ones. Some are high up and subtle; some are a lot more obvious. We wonder how long they will remain in place for?

(Incidentally, pictures of those involved in our litterpicking sessions are only taken, and displayed here, with their express consent – the right of anyone not to have their picture taken, and to remain anonymous, is one we take seriously.)

In 2015 we collected about 250 sacks of litter! (well, these were the first litter-picks ever in some of the most-used ‘hot spots’, so there were 20 + years of sexual debris there).

The final haul from one of our litter-picking sessions in 2015

Examples of a recent litter-pick:

Before

After

Before

After

And, like the VERY many other ‘hot spots’ remaining, this one (“The Gym”) still needs attention.