Ham and Petersham residents are invited to take part in a cleanup day of rubbish collecting and branch trimming.

The Ham and Petersham Association will be picking up rubbish in the Ham Avenues in a bid to maintain the “beautiful and historic” grassland and to celebrate its 75th anniversary on Saturday, January 18.

Volunteers will meet at 9.30am at the junction of Sandy Lane and the Great South Avenue to do some pruning and clearing.

People are advised to wear gloves and boots and to bring secateurs if possible. Coffee and biscuits will be supplied.

The work is part of a general maintenance programme around the recently-restored Avenues, taking place in January and February.

Sufiyo Andersson, who works in Ham as a housekeeper and regularly walks her employer’s labrador along the Thames towpath, organised the first successful cleanup last April.

She said: “This will involve both cleaning up rubbish and the pruning back of leaves and branches, so we don’t expect to collect as much rubbish as last time.”