CHILDREN who cleaned up the remnants of an illegal gathering on land in Saltash have been thanked by the owners.
Two shopping trolleys, “40-odd empty bottles of vodka” and hundreds of cans were collected up into black bin bags by five-year-old Eron Antrobus and his big sister Isla, six.
The siblings, who attend Bishop Cornish Primary School, had been out doing their daily exercise and following a path at the periphery of the China Fleet Club. When the youngsters came across the mess, they wanted to do something about it, said their mum Cherie.
“It looked like there had been a mini festival,” she said.
“We have been picking up litter since the beginning of lockdown but this was our biggest collection.
“My little ones decided they wanted to do a clean-up of the area because the birdies and the squirrels wouldn’t like it.
“We were contacted by the groundskeeper at China Fleet to say a massive thank you. We didn’t realise at the time that it was private land.”
Head groundskeeper Nathan O’Sullivan said that there had been an ongoing issue in that area of the club’s land, with “kids doing drugs, setting light to things and lately coming onto the golf course and breaking things”.
In the past, he said broken glass left behind had ripped through machinery, causing thousands of pounds worth of damage.
China Fleet Club managing director Dean Bennett said that, while the club was closed at present due to the lockdown, security was being stepped up and barriers put in place to prevent the vandalism reoccurring.
The China Fleet grounds stretch over 180 acres, he said, and in normal times, are tended by a five-strong groundskeeping team.
“That particular bit of land is used as a turf nursery and we have had issues there before,” he said.
“We are very grateful to the parent and children for what they did.
“Extra security and control measures are being put in place to stop it happening.”