ABCD-in-Luton are “volunteers encouraging fellow residents to come together to do what they are passionate about“. Their ‘Keep Luton Tidy’ events allow people to get involved with cleaning up their neighbourhood.
I used my Tuesday lunch break to turn up to ABCD’-in-Luton’s litter pick.
Kev was easy to identify as his purple hi-vis vest had printed prominently on it the name: ‘Kev’ in large letters. He was stationed by two vans parked up in St George’s square and was commandeering the big tidying effort.
I presented myself for litter pick duty and he gave me key equipment – a bin bag held open with a litter-picker hoop, and long trigger-picker tongs with which to grab litter. He told me to bring him any nos gas cannisters I encountered separately, as they needed special recycling. As if on cue, a picker arrived to hand him a nos gas cannister, which he showed to me by way of illustration.
Today, the plan was to make Luton look nice ahead of Friday’s football home match against West Ham; so I was to focus on clearing between the train station and Kenilworth stadium.
St George’s Square was ground 0 of the tidying effort and had already been scoured clean of trash; so I ventured further afield, toward Luton Bus and Train Station before circling back again toward the Square.
I filled my bag with litter – bottles, cans, sandwich wrappings, disposable Starbucks cups and crisp packets featured prominently in what litter I collected.
Along the way I encountered various litter picker comrades-at-tongs. These included security guards from the Mall, office workers on their lunch breaks and PCSOs
On returning to St George’s Square, I saw that we had been joined by Luton’s Deadpool who arrived to help the big effort.
I enthused over my experience of litter picking and Kev told me the pick regularly happens during lunch hours on the last Tuesday of the month and that it’s easy to follow online when and where the tidying events happen.
Kev told me a bit of backstory. He cares a lot about tidy streets and so started doing local litter picks in his neighbourhood. Participation snowballed during lockdown and there are now hundreds of people signed up to participate in the regular events. Although the local authority picks up the litter ABCD groups collect, ABCD-in-Luton are not affiliated to the local council, as its ethos is about empowering people to engage within their communities rather than relying on the local authority to do things for them.
For the montage Kev gave me a #KeepLutonTidy badge and sent me to find the sign ‘Step Forward Luton’.
Kev is the 25th pocket of Luton but since there’s still a bit of space left on my frame, I’ll do a few more
Pocket Number 26: Ian underneath ‘Step Forward Luton’ sign, Hat Gardens >>
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