Sixty members of the Winchester Litter Pickers attended the annual party to thank them for their work over the past year.

Dean of Winchester, the Very Revd Michael Till and his wife, Tessa, were guests of honour, the dean using the opportunity to thank the 24 stalwarts who had been clearing the Outer Close of the Cathedral of litter during the summer.

The guests included Richard Shorter and his wife, Anne. He is the house master at Winchester College, whose boys sally forth on a Wednesday afternoon to clear litter from the footpaths beyond the playing fields.

Also at the party were Frank Perrett and his wife, Gaby, who have been out with their three daughters and other pupils of Winnall Primary School to clear litter in the Garbett Road area. Frank is a governor of the school, and is keen to extend their work with the Winchester Litter Pickers.

One member of the party said that in her native Sweden "...no-one would dream of dropping litter"so she is horrified by the litter that is dropped here.

During the evening, a raffle was held, when one of the many prizes was a bottle of vintage champagne, found when recovering litter from some bushes.

Part of the cost of the evening was covered by money picked up as litter and by the sale of 8,000 aluminium cans recovered last summer. After a happy evening, the litter pickers are ready to work on for yet another year.