Rubbish unites Hockwell Ring community

Hockwell Ring residents band together to clean the streets in an event organised by the mosque

More than 70 men, women and children joined Luton North MP Kelvin Hopkins and councillors Waheed and Yasmin Akbar at Hockwell Ring community centre as they prepared to help.

There were several inspiring speeches to get everyone in the mood, then volunteers were assigned to different areas and split into small teams before being given pickers, gloves and bin bags.

Their presence elicited much positive comment from shop-goers and home owners.

One said: “You guys are doing an amazing job – keep it up. I used to live in London and I’ve never seen anything like this before.”

The day was a big success on two fronts – more than 20 bin bags were filled with rubbish and the event also generated a great sense of community cohesion.

Everyone was invited to the mosque for refreshments after the big clean up.