Roadchef to clean up 'utterly disgraceful' amount of litter next to Northampton M1 service station

Roadchef will be cleaning up the 'utterly disgraceful' amount of litter in a patch of woodland next to its service station on the M1 near Northampton

Rubbish seems to cover the ground in the trees between the southbound services car park at junction 15a and the motorway in photos posted on social media.

The firm said its staff will clear up the litter on Sunday (March 21) after being made aware of it by Kevin Doherty, who styles himself as Banana Man Litter Warrior on Twitter.

A Roadchef spokesperson said: "We have an important role to play in protecting the local areas around all of our sites and run initiatives to reduce our waste, as well as encouraging our customers to dispose of their waste responsibly through our easy to use recycling bins.

"Over the last year we have had to reduce the number of litter picks we run around our services, due to reduced staff numbers caused by the pandemic.

"After being made aware of the litter in the woods around our Northampton site, our team members will take part in a clean-up activity on March 21.

"This will extend into the area owned by Northampton Borough Council, ensuring litter is removed from the entire area."

Mr Doherty posted photos of the mess and called on Roadchef to clean it up on the UK Litterpicking Groups Facebook group on Tuesday (March 16).

"Roadchef just lip service from this motorway service area group. Utterly disgraceful and why does local council allow this," he wrote.

"You sell all this packaging, get a team in and clean it up. You're a disgrace along with blind management."

Mr Doherty credited campaigners CleanPlanet.Today and Truckers Cleaning Up Britain for raising awareness of litter around service stations.

While many people agreed with his condemnation of Roadchef on Facebook, with one person writing: "Utter disgrace, they should be ashamed of themselves for not clearing this up."