'It all starts with pride in our area', say litter picking campaigners

"I think it all starts with pride. I think if people have no pride in the area or pride where they live, then they're just gonna throw stuff everywhere."

Curtis Peters and his family own a furniture shop, TS Domestics in Tunstall, Stoke-on-Trent, and were incensed by the increasing amount of litter in their area.

In response, they launched a Make Tunstall Great Again campaign, taking it upon themselves to clean the streets. They have carried out hundreds of litter picks since the campaign began 16 months ago.

A social media campaign has helped the momentum of the litter picks.

"We were just tired of seeing how the streets were," Peters said.

"We've just got a mission to make it better and thought no-one else is doing it and no-one else is clearly going to do it, so we'll just go and do it."

Tunstall is the northernmost of Stoke-on-Trent's six towns and has its own high street and park.

Callum Wiggins and Lewis Martin, from the TS Domestics team, said it was about inspiring people and they now saw many other people doing their own litter picks.

Rhys Oakes added: "The impact that we wanted to have was that we're spreading a message of, like, loving your community you know."

The group has now had its first joined up approach with the neighbouring Newcastle-under-Lyme Business Improvement District.

Charlotte Pearce, manager of Newcastle BID, said: "We've seen on social media the kind of effect they're having in Stoke-on-Trent and they've got a really good following and I think for us a really young following as well that are really engaged.

"I think they're the kind of people that we really want to be targeting in the town centre."

Stoke-on-Trent City Council has tried to crack down on litter since June 2023, spending £260,000 to tackle fly-tipping.

Between June 2023 and January 2026, the council said it had:

• Seen 16,726 reported incidents of littering and fly-tipping
• Cleaned 20,347 incidents
• Issued 5,330 fines for waste offences
• The overall amount of waste dumped was equivalent to filling 8,600 skips

Councillor Amjid Wazir said four additional street cleaning posts had been created and its response time from reporting waste to clearing was now three working days.

"Following a meeting with TS Domestics last year, we have strengthened our working relationship," Wazir said.

"TS Domestics now have direct contact with our environmental team, which means we can arrange prompt collections of waste after each organised event.

"They do excellent work in our communities and we are keen to support them wherever we can."

TS Domestics now plans to go into schools to educate pupils, saying they want youngsters to feel pride in their local area and for everyone to take responsibility.

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