NEARLY 1,500 bags of rubbish were collected by Tranent Wombles on the streets of Tranent and surrounding areas in 2022, in what group members have called a busy year.

Sharon Macleod, from Tranent Wombles, said: “All our Wombles worked very hard in 2022 improving the overall look of our town and surrounding areas, with the removal of approximately 1,443 bags of rubbish off our streets, hedgerows, plus lots of other various discarded pieces of fly-tipping that we recovered, reported and got lifted.”

Beyond litter picking, Tranent Wombles launched additional projects in the town last year, including tidying and cleaning Tranent Cemetery and creating the ‘Pollinator Parklet’, a garden on Lindores Drive they hope to turn into a beautiful green space for locals to enjoy.

Funding of £3,000 for the parklet and equipment was given to the group by the local area partnership last September, and it is hoped that work on the green space will be completed by the council this year.

The Wombles have also begun working with other groups, including the East Lothian Climate Action Network (ELCAN), which was launched last October and aims to bring together local groups focused on tackling climate change and other environmental issues.

Sharon said: “Helping tidy up the cemetery was back-breaking work in temperatures that turned the soil to concrete and took us so much longer than we expected to finish.

“We did have some great laughs, though!

“In the town, we were able to adopt some land and we started our Pollinator Parklet, and also tidied up and planted bulbs in the raised bed by the Salvation Army.

“We will be continuing to plant up and complete the project this year.

“I would like to take this opportunity to thank our loyal members for all their encouragement, which in turn helped many of us to keep going.”

Mike Falconer, chairman of Tranent and Elphinstone Community Council, praised the Wombles for their efforts and said: “I am enormously proud of the work the Wombles do in the area and we are incredibly grateful for their work over the past couple of years.

“Seeing them start their work in Lindores Drive too can only be a good thing.

“Tranent has lots of wee areas like that and seeing them make good use of it is great.

“I like everything the Wombles do and it is also great to see other groups in other parts of East Lothian also getting involved in their areas.”