From Public Health Northamptonshire
While we understand that litter picking is an important community activity and appreciate the volunteer effort, we want to make sure you are aware of the current guidelines and that any community activity is Covid secure to minimise risk of infection.
The Government has announced from 8 – 29th March 2021 people will be allowed to leave home for recreation and exercise outdoors with their household or support bubble, if they
are eligible for one, or with one person from outside their household. From 29 March, outdoor gatherings either 6 people (the Rule of 6) or 2 households will also be allowed.
Any litter picking must be compliant with social distancing and COVID rules. You should not encourage people to volunteer outside of their local area or arrange for large groups to meet.
People must maintain a 2 metre distancing outdoors unless from the same household, with use of hand sanitisers and face coverings. Furthermore, litter picking may involve littered face masks and gloves, and any items which may have been in contact with the virus, and so precautions must be taken to wear gloves and not pick up any litter by hand, using only litter
picking equipment.
Local authorities and the police will continue to provide support and advice, enabling groups to operate safely. Where people do not follow the rules, the appropriate enforcement action
will be taken.
Further information on the guidance can be found here
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-response-spring-2021/covid-19-
response-spring-2021-summary#step-1—8-and-29-march
We of course do have this guidance in place for our Womble activities and our Tuesday Tidy Ups. This can be found both on the about section of the Wellie Wombles group on Facebook at https://facebook.com/groups/welliewombles and on our website at https://wellingboroughecogroup.org.uk/eco/litter-picking/tuesday-tidy-ups