Three London 'grot spots' in dirty dozen for Queen's clean campaign

Three London areas have been voted among the top 12 litter 'grot spots' in the UK as part of a clean-up campaign ahead of The Queen's 90th birthday.

Hundreds of locations were nominated by the public for the "dirty dozen" chosen by the Clean for the Queen campaign.

Church Lane in Tooting, South Road in Erith and Queen Caroline's Draw Dock in Hammersmith were selected among the most litter-blighted areas of the country.

Local authorities have welcomed the initiative as many have had to reduce services in the face of budget cuts.

Bexley council said they were aware of litter problems in South Road, Erith.

A spokesman for the council said: "South Road is one of the boroughs key routes and is prone to the thoughtless act of litter being thrown out of vehicles as well as litter left by bus stop users and bags of rubbish dumped by litter bins that is then blown into nearby shrubbery.

"We are reviewing our street cleaning service which will allow us to target these areas more effectively when needed but we would urge anyone, no matter where in the borough, to take their litter away with them or dispose of it responsibly."

Thousands of people are to volunteer to litter-pick in their area this weekend. Credit: Clean for the Queen campaign

The campaign is encouraging volunteers to head out onto the streets and pick up litter to help the country look its best ahead of Her Majesty's official birthday on April 21 and celebrations in June.

So far, more than 186,000 volunteers have signed up for the clean-up taking place this weekend.

The clean-up is being supported by businesses, charities, local authorities and schools.

According to Keep Britain Tidy, more than 2 million pieces of rubbish are dropped on the UK's streets every day, an increase of 500% since the 1960s.

Adrian Evans, the campaign's director, said: "We have chosen these grot spots to highlight just how bad the litter problem is and also to emphasise that everyone can make a difference to their local area by not littering."

Other 'grot spots' selected included the Canal Bank in Northbrook Street, Birmingham, the Black Swamp in the River Avon and Kemp Town seafront in Brighton.