‘Everyone should be looking after the town they are living in’

The Wombles of Wimbledon are about to be usurped as the most successful group of litter pickers and rubbish collectors as Florence’s Street Clean Mission goes from strength to strength.

From a holiday beach clean eight years ago to cleaning up the streets of Yeovil pretty much every day, the team have ensured that there is a lot less litter in the South Somerset town.

One of the organisers of the lauded team, Jude Parsons, has spoken to Somerset’s Alive! about the impact that their street clean has had and their hopes for the future.

Speaking about what inspired the team, Jude said: “We took on a two minute beach clean while on holiday in 2015. The children wanted to do one at every beach we could find.

“Once home, [Florence] asked me to video her and her message to everybody.”

What followed was unexpected as from the seeds of an idea that was a bit of joke, a new positive community organisation was born.

Jude continued: “That video was uploaded to Facebook for a laugh really, and it all took off.

“We didn’t have a team until Covid struck, and we met Bananaman to clear a local flytip. A great friendship grew, and it all began.”

There have been many successes since then and Jude spoke about what pleases the team: “We have had areas stay clear for months, which we always love to see, but the biggest [success] would be the amazing friendships on the team.”

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Despite the important work being undertaken, Jude said that what they do should be done by everyone in the town.

She coninued: “We don’t really see the big fuss over the page and group. Everyone should be looking after the town we live in. We can only hope that others will follow as Yeovil is a nice place to live.”

With Jude and her family taking “one day at a time” as their motto, she said that there is only one real aim to all that they are doing.

She said: “We would like to one day leave this planet better than when we arrived.”