Get involved
Make Britain Beautiful
Every Street Matters. Every Volunteer Matters.
Take pride in the place where you live. Organise a litter-pick, tidy a neglected street, or clear a forgotten corner of your town — and we'll help you do it.
The idea
What counts as an event?
Almost anything that leaves a public place better than you found it:
- A litter-pick in your local park
- Tidying a neglected street
- Clearing weeds from a forgotten corner of your town
- Cleaning signs, or removing graffiti (with the owner's permission)
- Bringing neighbours together to improve a community space
You don't need permission from us to get started. If you see an area that needs some love, organise an event in your own community — and tell us so we can help.
How it works
Four steps to your own event
Pick a place and a date
A park, a high street, a village green, a towpath, a beach. Weekend mornings work best — allow around two hours, and make sure the area is safe and publicly accessible.
Ask your council
Most councils are delighted to help. They can often supply litter pickers, gloves, bags and hi-vis vests, advise on locations, and collect the rubbish afterwards.
Tell everyone
Neighbours, community groups, your local paper. Local newspapers love a positive community story and will often help you recruit volunteers before the day.
Register it with us
Tell us what you're planning and we'll do our best to promote it, help recruit volunteers, and celebrate what you achieved afterwards.
Support
Who can help you
You don't have to do this alone. Three phone calls will usually get you most of what you need:
Your local council
Litter pickers, gloves, bin bags, hi-vis vests, advice on locations — and, crucially, collection of the rubbish afterwards. Many have a community engagement team or an environmental officer whose job this is.
Your local BID
If your town has a Business Improvement District, they may support your event with equipment, volunteers or publicity.
Your local paper
Tell them beforehand and they may help spread the word. Afterwards, send them your best photos and a short summary — it celebrates everyone's work and inspires the next town to try it.
Stay safe
Make Britain Beautiful guidelines
Please help make sure every event is safe, enjoyable and respectful.
✅ Please do
- Be friendly and welcoming to everyone.
- Wear suitable clothing and sturdy footwear.
- Wear gloves when handling litter.
- Use litter-picking tools wherever possible.
- Work only in safe locations.
- Bring water, and encourage volunteers to do the same.
- Keep children supervised by a responsible adult at all times.
- Separate recyclable materials where practical.
- Leave the area looking better than you found it.
- Tell someone where you're going if you're working alone.
- Carry a mobile phone in case of emergency.
❌ Please don’t
- Don't enter private land without the owner's permission.
- Don't paint, repair or alter anyone else's property without permission.
- Don't remove signs, barriers or street furniture.
- Don't enter roads with fast-moving traffic, or anywhere without safe pedestrian access.
- Don't climb embankments or enter rivers, lakes, ponds or other hazardous areas.
- Don't attempt to move fly-tipped waste, large items or hazardous materials yourself.
- Don't handle needles, chemicals, asbestos, gas cylinders, flares or any unidentified object — report them to your council instead.
- Don't put yourself or anyone else at risk.
Getting the rubbish taken away
Agree with your local council how the collected waste will be disposed of BEFORE your event.
Many councils will collect bags from an agreed location, or provide special bags for community litter-picks.
Avoid leaving tied bags beside public bins unless the council has agreed to it — they can be treated as fly-tipping, which rather defeats the point.
Afterwards
Share your success
We love seeing communities come together. After your event, send us:
- Before and after photographs
- Group photos
- A short description of what you achieved
- Roughly how many volunteers came along
We'll showcase your efforts here and on social media, to inspire others across the country.
A word on photographs. Please ask your volunteers whether they're happy to appear in photographs before you send them to us — and let us know if anyone would rather not.
By sending us photos you're giving us permission to use them on our website, in our emails and on social media, with credit where you'd like it. Please only send photos you took yourself, or ones you have the photographer's permission to share — and tell us who took them.
Community Hero— every volunteer who turns up has earned one.
Send them to britainbeautiful@greatbritishpac.com.
Downloads
Everything you need
Community Event Organiser Pack
The full guide — choosing a location, contacting your council, promoting the day, a safety briefing, a simple risk assessment, a volunteer register and a printable acknowledgement form.
Open the pack (print or save as PDF) →
Make Britain Beautiful logo
The campaign badge — for your poster, your social posts or your local paper.
Download PNG ↓
Community Hero badge
A thank-you for the people who turn up. Send it round after your event — they earned it.
Download PNG ↓
Why we do it
Our commitment
Make Britain Beautiful is about bringing people together through positive action.
It isn't about politics. It isn't about blame.
It's about pride in our communities, respect for where we live, and making Britain a cleaner, greener and more welcoming place for everyone.
Invite your neighbours. Bring your friends. Get your local school, business, sports club or community group involved. Together we can make Britain beautiful — one street, one park and one community at a time.
Tell us
Register your event
Let us know what you’re planning and we’ll do our best to promote it on our website and social media, help recruit volunteers, and celebrate what you achieved afterwards. No account needed.
Prefer email? Write to britainbeautiful@greatbritishpac.com.
One street at a time.
Thousands of small acts of civic pride, in every corner of the country, add up to something a government programme never could.