Kids collect five bags of litter left on riverbank

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BBC Three children sit on top of a gate in a field with cows in. They are smiling at the camera. On the left is a blond haired boy wearing a blue t-shirt and beige shorts. In the middle another blond boy wears a green t-shirt and navy shorts and on his right is another blond haired younger boy wearing a red t-shirt, denim shorts and a red stripey jacket.

A farmer from Worcester says he is clearing up litter left in his fields every day - and on one occasion, his own children collected five bags of rubbish in an afternoon during the half term holidays.

Tristan Bennett, from Bennett's farm in Lower Wick, said people walking on the public footpaths along the river Teme leave towels, clothes, sweet wrappers and bottles on a regular basis.

"Quite often, half eaten sweet packets... and if a cow smells the sweet sugar they'll try and eat it and then if it's stuck in the packet, they'll eat a whole packet, which can then get stuck in their guts and kill a cow," he said.

Bennett said the problem seemed to have got a lot worse since lockdown.

A man with short brown hair and a dark green fleece in standing in front of a gate, with a field of cows in the background.

"Since that hot summer, we've been a very popular destination for the local schools, for the children to come down in the summer and play by the river," the farmer said.

"It's great people are out in the countryside and enjoying themselves, but the problem is what they leave behind... always so much rubbish and just their own possessions - they don't really seem to care about them and leave them scattered all over the riverbank."

One afternoon during half term, his own children were on a walk with their grandfather when they came across another pile of abandoned belongings and decided to take matters into their own hands.

"We spent about four hours tidying up rubbish," said Bennett's eight-year-old.

"We found a load of towels, plastic bags, loads of alcoholic drinks, a load of socks and a pair of shoes.

"If they left their shoes, how would they even get home?"

Four piles of bagged rubbish and dirty towels are on the ground in the dirt.

The farmer has attempted to deter people from loitering by spreading cattle slurry near the worst affected spots.

"It's now very unpleasant," he said. "If I'm going to have to keep going down collecting rubbish to make it safe for my cows to go out to graze, we're going to do what actions we can to deter people.

"It obviously comes with a certain aroma, it's not very nice to walk through... and then the flies are really quite appalling, [but] they'll follow it round, so it deters people from stopping in that area."

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