Litter Defence Volunteers

In 1967 there were reportedly 5,000 ‘Litter Defence Volunteers’ criss-crossing the country pushing the ‘Keep Britain Tidy’ slogan. Then came the children's favourite the Wombles to pick up and carry the baton forward. 

Who will ever remember in 1988 when that Nora Batty look-a-like, Thatcher, and her trumped up anti-litter campaign. Plus the memorable they came up with “Bag it, bin it, together we`ll win it” as part of her campaign against litter.  

Thatcher Quote: 'We have seen this morning a beautiful park lovely trees, lake, plants disfigured by litter. The litter is not the Government's fault. The litter is the fault of the people who knowingly or thoughtlessly throw it down and pollute the environment in which they live. There is a law against it, there are about 1500 prosecutions a year—but that is but a small part of the problem.'

However, if you want to get a better insight into the real workings of government, you could do worse than to have a read at this article by the 'Plastic Hippo'. 

Is it time to bring back a new version of dads army. The battalions of grey granddads who were also known as the Local Defence Volunteers. To pick up and run so to speak with the CaRThorse cavalry of litter pickers working on the canal towpath. 

Fast forward and to today and the Canal and River Trust has started to create its own  battalions of Litter Defence Volunteers.  So you to could soon be working with your own version of Captain Mainwaring.  We're doomed I tell you, doomed.

As one of the Keep Britain Tidy campaigns, this 1968 film shows Litter Defence Volunteers or ‘LDVs’, striking against 'public enemy number one' a litter bug. The formation of LDVs was a play on the 'Local Defence Volunteers', otherwise known as the Home Guard, who formed Britain’s last line of defence against invasion during the Second World War.