VILLAGE litter pickers have hit a weighty milestone but it is not one they are celebrating.

Copythorne Parish Pickers have collected 10 tons of rubbish, some 2,500 large bin bags, from four years' work in the parish on the edge of the New Forest.

Now the Parish Pickers have issued a clarion call for a fight back. 

A spokesman for the group said: "This is not a celebration, rather a sad indictment of the degradation of our society and past values.

"We are a small group operating in one parish within the New Forest, albeit a major gateway into the park, but these accumulations are unacceptably high.

"Volunteers can go on picking week in week out but it's not the answer to an ever-increasing problem. We need more support from the authorities to tackle this abuse. We need cameras, prosecutions and a Government-led campaign to reverse this social inertia. The vast majority of the public agree and cleaning our streets, verges and open spaces is the first step to regaining our national pride.

"Or we can sit on our hands, moan do nothing and continue being the dirtiest country in Europe".