One-man battle launched against litter blighting Horsham

Mark Crane regularly litter-picks three or four times a week in various spots around the town collecting bagfuls of other people’s rubbish.

“The amount of litter around Horsham just frustrates me,” he said. “It’s a real blight on our community.”

And, he said, it is having a detrimental impact on local wildlife. “I’ve found dead hedgehogs with face masks wrapped around them.”

Mark, 60, first set about his clear-up during lockdown after being made redundant from his job as a pensions advisor.

“I run four or five miles most days,” he said. “If you are running you just notice litter more. You don’t notice things as much when you’re in a car.”

And he often collates rubbish - huge bagfuls - when he’s out walking his dog Finn with his partner Geraldine.

He sorts it into recyclable and ‘landfill’ bags and puts them into his own bins when he gets home, or takes it to the dump if he has too much.