There was a combination of three teams for a recent litter pick in St John’s: a crew from the local McDonald’s branches led by franchise owner Mark Schweitzer and GM Milap Bhatt, a group of local residents including Lib Dem councillors Dale Roberts, Leslie Rice and Rob Leach, and a sizeable turnout from the Woking Litter Warriors.

The assembled multitude split into smaller groups and set off across the Lye and down to the Basingstoke Canal, picking up discarded cans, bottles and general rubbish as they went.

In keeping with the warriors’ tradition of finding interesting items in the undergrowth, this pick was no exception: a mini fridge with Team England branding (perhaps deposited by a fan disappointed with some early performances of Thomas Tuchel’s squad?), a large “super soaker”-style water gun, a bag of tools (saw, hammer and box cutter amongst others), an almost new football and, perhaps most special of all, a pristine if grubby hair product bottle from the early 1900s for a long-defunct brand.

Not to mention a total of 22 large bags of rubbish and, as is becoming common on all recent litter picks, a number of NOS (nitrous oxide) canisters.

“We’ve collected nearly 200 of these heavy canisters since we started counting around two years ago,” said warriors founder Lauren Horncastle. “It’s lucky we have a trolley to transport them to our collection points as they are unbelievably heavy.

“Obviously the government’s crackdown on sales is having a very limited effect.”

If you are interested in joining the litter warriors, they meet as a group roughly once or twice a month in the Woking area, rain or shine, and can be found on Facebook at Woking Litter Warriors (WLW), on Instagram at wokinglitterwarriors or alternatively you can email them at [email protected].