A man who picked tons of rubbish from the edges of the A49 between Hereford and Leominster last year turned his attention to the Hereford A465 this year.
Over the past three weeks, Thomas Collingwood, known to many as Geordie, has literally filled hundreds of sacks with the garbage collectors being tossed out the windows of their cars and trucks. Amazingly many who periodically discover the stacks of purple bags and wait to be picked up by Balfour Beatty.
But he’s not done yet and believes that he may be able to continue until early May. Then the vegetation will make it impossible to see the garbage.
Mr Collingwood, who lives in Hereford, explains that it is his love of cycling that led to his Hercules garbage collection missions. That and without TV or internet.
“So I ride my bike a lot and that’s how I noticed the litter,” explains Collingwood. “And you think about things a lot on a bike,” and one of those things wondered why someone who lives in an expensive house wouldn’t bother picking up the trash outside. “So I thought I was going to do this and that’s how I did it.”
He’s already reached a point a few miles west of Lock’s garage where he’s a familiar character and comes by at least once a day.
He calculates: “I must have driven the Hereford to Abergavenny road 100 times over the years.”
And until the grass gets too long, he’ll be out there whatever the weather, working to clean up other people’s mess.
“It looks really good now when you ride,” he says.