TWO organisations have joined forces to show Tavistock a new and fun way of keeping the town clean and tidy.

Environmental group Tidy Tavi and Run Venture Running Hub are to put on the town’s first ever ‘plogging’ event — combining people’s passion for jogging and their desire to keep the town tidy.

Plogging is a combination of jogging and picking up litter which began in 2016 in Sweden. The new creation spread to other countries in 2018 in a way to tackle the concerns around plastic pollution.

Tidy Tavi meets at the beginning of each month to collect litter from around the town of Tavistock and Run Venture, on West Street, runs a brunch run each month.

Owner of Run Venture and Dragonfly Cafe Colin Kirk-Potter, who came up with the idea to introduce plogging to Tavistock, said: ‘As runners we use the environment as our playground so it would be remiss of us not to look after it. It’s like paying rent.

‘A combination of the words jogging and “plocka” which is Swedish for “to pick”, plogging helps keep the streets clean, burns calories and is a great core workout!

‘We are doing this in conjunction with Tidy Tavi who have been consistently keeping Tavistock clean on a regular basis.

‘This is a great way to support other initiatives.’

It is hoped the plogging event will take place once a quarter. If you want to take part, put on your running shoes and meet at Run Venture at 10am this Sunday (October 20).

Tidy Tavi will provide the equipment and bags. All running abilities are welcomed.

Steve Hipsey from Tidy Tavi said: ‘I think this is a fantastic idea. Colin from Dragonfly Café and his team of runners who are going to do the Plogging will be using our equipment. We’ve effectively agreed to take them under our wing as a sub-branch of Tidy Tavi.’

• Tidy Tavi volunteers meet at Meadowlands Leisure Centre at 10am on the first Saturday every month. On October 5, 40 volunteers celebrated Tidy Tavi’s eighth birthday with a celebratory drink and cake.

When the festivities were over, the teams set out on their 94th litter-picking expedition. Participants included several children and some welcome reinforcements from Plastic Free Tavistock (Surfers Against Sewage).

A spokesperson for the group said: ‘Although a large area of Tavistock was covered a relatively small amount of rubbish was collected.’