Castle Academy pupils take their litter fight to the local council

Pupils from Castle Academy in Northampton have had their campaign against litter louts presented at a local council meeting.

Twenty-five pupils in Year 5 wrote letters to West Northamptonshire Council calling for urgent action to tackle ongoing flytipping and littering in the area around their school, and last week some of those letters were read out at a full council meeting by ward councillor Danielle Stone.

One of the letters read out was written by Tabitha, who says: “I am nine years old and I am writing to tell you about my horrible day. Every day I walk to school I see so much rubbish. I see plastic bags, broken glass, discarded takeaway boxes, vapes and beer cans. The rubbish attracts vermin and rats, and this is bad because vermin can make people die or get sick.”

In another letter, Ester says: “My complaint is about all the refuse on the floor. Walking to school I feel livid, irritated and sickened. It was beautiful and now it’s destroyed.”

The children called on the council to increase litter bins and litter picking, install additional CCTV and issue fines for flytipping and littering.

Acting Head of School at Castle Academy Alex Holdsworth said: “The pupils wrote some incredibly eloquent and moving letters to the council explaining how bad the issue of littering and flytipping is around our school and how it makes them feel. The local environment has been an issue of concern for us for some time and the children feel very strongly that something needs to be done about it.

“We are very grateful to Cllr Stone for taking the pupils’ campaign to the council meeting and we hope that we will now see some positive action to address the issues.”

You can watch a video of the council meeting featuring the pupils’ letters here.