Chigwell volunteers and care staff donned their protective gloves to pick litter from the local area and around the home’s gardens to ensure it was cleaner and safer for everyone.

They were joined by Parish Council and councillors from Grange Hill Ward on Sunday for the litter picking event at Lambwood Heights Care Home.

Lambwood Heights is part of Oakland Care, which was the first care home group in the UK to be certified as carbon neutral earlier this year, by Carbon Neutral Britain, the UK’s leading carbon offsetting organisation.

The residents and staff from Lambwood Heights spent more than an hour with their grabbers picking up litter.

The litter pick event saw many bags of rubbish were picked up and disposed of thanks to the volunteers, leaving the area looking much cleaner and tidier.

Sonia Kasese, Manager of Lambwood Heights said: “It was fantastic to be part of this event,” “Lambwood Heights is a key part of the local community, and to have the opportunity to help make our neighbourhood cleaner and safer for everyone was something we were really keen to get involved with.

“When we asked for volunteers for this event, our residents were only too keen to take part and help give something back to a community most have lived in all their lives. They all take pride in Chigwell and want to help the town look its best.”

“At Lambwood Heights we are always looking for ways to help the environment, including ensuring we recycle as much as we can and being as energy efficient as possible.”

The volunteers were taken to the meeting point in Lambwood Heights’ new accessible minibus, which has been bought to enable residents to get out into the community more often to take part in events such as this and go on trips to local attractions.