I am delighted to have been asked to write a regular column for Nub News, an initiative for our local area that I support wholeheartedly. Community is everything – it is the reason the Sidmouth Plastic

Warriors group exists.

I started it in January 2018, when I was becoming pretty depressed about the state of the world's oceans. I had been doing lone litter picks on the beach but got many strange looks – until Blue Planet 2 happened. Suddenly everyone got it – what I had been thinking for five years or so, was suddenly everywhere.

The Facebook group I then started grew massively – and now has over 450 followers. I designed a website, got involved with others to form a plastic 'steering committee' for the town, enrolled in Surfers Against Sewage to gain 'Plastic Free Community' status (which we hold as a town – but need to push much further – please contact me if you have cut out three things that were single use plastic from your business on [email protected]).

Since starting we have held at least one organised clean up a month – both beach and inland. We have had over 300 different people attending and collected hundreds of sack-loads of rubbish (all disposed of (and recycled where possible) by Streetscene. To read the write ups, visit http://sidmouthplasticwarriors.org/blog.

We also run a scheme called Adopt A Spot where we take just a road or a car park and look after it – just a wander around every couple of weeks after an initial clean up is normally enough to keep it tidy. We have been given some new litter pickers just for this scheme so if anyone wants to sign up, just visit the site and let me know.

We sign and share hundreds of petitions such as this one, just today, to ban the deliberate releases of balloons and lanterns which we all feel passionately about. Even so-called biodegradable balloons hang around in our environment for up to six months, and of course what goes up, must come down – and often they come down at sea or in rural areas, causing damage. We recently saw evidence of a balloon from Essex coming down in Sidmouth – these balloons travel hundreds of miles and do not discriminate about where they come down! It is mass littering under a different name and needs to be stopped.

In other news, just this week I have been elected to East Devon District Council and Sidmouth Town Council as an Independent East Devon Alliance councillor. My main aim is to get on to eco, green or recycling committees and bring the environment to the top of the list.

I will let you know through this column how I get on. Thank you to anyone reading this who voted for me – I will do my best to honour that vote.

Please join us for our next clean up, during Sidmouth Sea Fest, Saturday, May 18, 10am. See you there!

Written by Sidmouth councillor, Denise Bickley.