Community-minded volunteers rolled up their sleeves and joined forces in a bid to tidy up a Dudley estate.

A total of 38 people signed up to the litter pick on the Oval and Tudor Estate in Upper Gornal organised by the residents association, the congregation at Upper Gornal Methodist Church, Spills Meadow and Dudley Council.

Volunteers were split into four groups, each with a team leader, and given a map detailing the exact area they were expected to concentrate on to ensure as much of the estate as possible was covered.

Resident Sandra Allen said: “To see members of the local community taking pride in where they live was brilliant.

“I think it gave us a sense of community spirit and hopefully this is something we can build on for the future. It would have been even better if we could have got more residents who live on the estate to have taken part but we would like to say a big thank you to all those who did turn up to help out.”

She added that everyone on the estate was particularly grateful to Janet Hand, the council officer assigned to the estate, and to church member Paul Raybold.

Both had helped enormously towards making the litter pick a big success.