A campaign to raise awareness of litter across the county has been awarded a major award at the national Keep Britain Tidy awards 2015.

The ‘Love Essex’ campaign saw all 15 Essex local authorities, including Brentwood Borough Council, join forces with the Highways Agency, RP2 Media and 75 McDonalds, KFC and Dominos franchises from across the county, to work in partnership with and help tackle the issues of fast food litter, leading to an average county-wide reduction of 41% in the areas monitored.

This led to the campaign being awarded the ‘Diamond Jubilee Partnership Award’ at the Awards last week, beating the London Capital Clean-up project.

In Brentwood the Waste and Recycling team held a number of Litter and Recycling Shows, assisted by the Neighbourhood Action Team, also undertook tidy ups and litter picks alongside the roadshows.

The team are continuing to deliver the message from the campaign by working alongside local schools to deliver Litter Awareness talks.

The Council's Environmental Health team also worked with Essex Police in an operation during the campaign in June to prevent fly-tipping as part of the campaign and carried out stop checks on vehicles and informing drivers that they needed to carry a waste transfer notice and a licence to transport and dispose of any commercial waste they carry.

Brentwood Borough Council's Chair of the Environment Committee, Councillor William Lloyd, said: "Keeping our Borough clean is one of our priorities at Brentwood Council and that’s why we wanted to support the Clean Essex campaign.

"By working with other authorities across Essex it helped get the message out that those who drop litter need to change their behaviour, so I am pleased that the campaign was recognised at the Keep Britain Tidy Awards.

"Our Recycling team are carrying out more litter education and recycling events with our programme in local schools to continue with their good work.”

Phil Barton, Chief Executive of Keep Britain Tidy, said: “The Awards recognise the work over the past 60 years of Keep Britain Tidy and highlight the breadth of our activity and programmes.

"It is a fantastic achievement for all those who were shortlisted, and for the winners to be recognised for their continuous hard work in improving the environment for themselves and for others.”