A COMMUNITY group that aims to look after Charvil has had a helping hand from the former prime minister Theresa May.
She joined the team of volunteers from Charvil Matters for a litter pick along the A4 on Saturday, November 30, braving the cold to collect waste dropped in verges along the road.
It’s one of a number of initiatives that the group, led by resident Sam Akhtar is undertaking in a bid to improve the village.
Mrs May was delighted to lend a hand.
“It’s really important that we look after the areas in which we live,” she said. “Picking up litter is one of the things that we can do to make sure that the local area is better and people can enjoy it more.
“It’s great that Sam is coming out with some other people and saying, ‘Let’s pick up this litter and make this place look great’.”
And Mr Akhtar said that the reason why he wanted to help the community was because he and his partner, Tamsin Morgan, as passionate about the environment.
“We want to make Charvil better and make it a clean, green eco-friendly place. The best way we do it is we just do it ourselves get out there hit the streets.
“We don’t just litter pick, we’re going out going to eco events and encouraging more interest in environmental issues.
“Soon we’re going to expand out across the Reading and wider Wokingham district area.”
He added: “We looked at what’s happening with Extinction Rebellion and all that and in my opinion, that’s a bit too extreme, and I’ve gone a bit the other way.
“We want to be a friendly, helpful kind of way – we’re not going to be doing protests or anything like that it’s simply just going out, cleaning litter, going to eco-environmental events and helping with things like eco-bricks, helping to increase awareness of any initiatives that help and anything environmental-related in the community.”
The group has a Facebook page, search for Charvil Matters.
