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Plea after 30 bags of rubbish collected after race

David Humphreys
Local Democracy Reporting Service
LDRS Plastic bottles on the ground in the parkLDRS
The endurance race also took in Sefton Park in the south of the city as organisers welcomed the largest number of competitors in its 31 year history

Volunteers at a city park have pleaded with runners to be more considerate after they collected 30 bags of rubbish following a half marathon.

Thousands of runners took over the city streets to compete in the Liverpool half marathon last weekend.

The endurance race, which welcomed the largest number of competitors in its 31 year history with almost 10,000 people taking part, also took in Sefton Park in the south of the city, which volunteers said they cleaned up afterwards despite being told there would be "no litter".

Race organisers BTR Liverpool have been contacted for comment.

Andrea Ku, chair of Friends of Sefton Park told the Local Democracy Reporting Service, said the bulk of the litter was detritus left by runners in their wake.

"It's not what we signed up for, to clean up after an event. We were told this year there would be no litter but we warned the organisers there would be," she said.

"We were out picking things up much longer than a normal session. It's all you can see really."

Ms Ku claimed that "between 80 and 90%" of the litter the 25-strong group picked up was made up of plastic bottles and energy gel sachets left behind by runners.

Last year, the group had issued a plea for participants to be more considerate of the space around them after more than 20 bags were filled.

Ms Ku added: "We're not against events at the park at all, but the clean up after them seems to be a bit lax.

"We volunteer because we love the park and want it to look good all the time, we just can't look past marathon litter and ignore it."

Established in 1994, the Liverpool Half Marathon is highly regarded as one of the longest-established premier road races in the region.

Runners enter Sefton Park, which is managed by Liverpool Council, around the half way mark of the race before heading on towards Otterspool for the final leg of the route into the city centre.

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