Teenager Ross Hayes sets out to clean up his neighbourhood

Ross Hayes, 15, is pulling on heavy duty gloves, grabbing his litter pick and heading out armed with bin bags to clean up his neighbourhood.

The teenager lives along Clover Road in Chorley and says flytipping is a regular problem in the area.

He said: “I wanted to start the Clover Road big clean because it’s a privilege to live here.

“There is no need for the rubbish, the amount of rubbish is shocking to me and I wanted to do it because I believe in if you want something done properly you have to do it yourself.

“They are extending the area to build more properties and the area has rubbish and it needs cleaning up.

“I want to plant some flowers to inject colour to this area to make it look nice and fresh so when people come down to look at the area to see what it’s like people will be like ‘wow this is a nice area’.”

Because Ross is home-schooled he has a little more flexibility to go out and start clearing the rubbish and he aims to be out about three or four times a week gathering up the discarded waste in bin bags.

Since he started the project, members of the community have rallied round.

Chorley Council dropped round some bin bags at his house and his family’s landlord has committed to picking up the full bin bags regularly and taking them to the dump.

Perhaps most encouraging of all is that an anonymous donor, who spotted his initiative on social media, put an order in at hardware shop Screwfix.

It meant that when Ross went down to the store he was able to pick up a broom and dust pan, a litter pick and heavy duty gloves and bags.

Ross is also hoping that supporters might donate some seeds to him so that he can plant them to make the area look attractive.

Commenting on his parent’s reaction to his initiative Ross said: “They think its absolutely brilliant. They are giving me a lot of support while I’m doing it.”

Ross’ mum Tina, who is self-employed, said: “I’m really proud of him.

“He was getting fed up with the rubbish I suggested making an arrangement with the landlord so that the bin bigs might be picked up and he’s just taken it from there.

“I’ve just taken a back seat.”