STAFF from McDonald's will be carrying out a litter pick at Birchwood Forest Park on Thursday.

Members of the team from the Birchwood restaurant, on Benson Road, are conducting the event as part of Keep Britain Tidy's 'Love Where You Live' campaign.

Cllr Russ Bowden (LAB – Birchwood) called for the fast food chain to mark its takeaway bags with car registration numbers in May to help combat littering in the town.

Following an online poll, 86 per cent of Warrington Guardian readers agreed with Cllr Bowden, but he has welcomed McDonald's desire to help clean up the area.

"I am pleased to see our local McDonald's staff helping to tackle litter in our community as part of the Love Where You Live campaign," he said.

"It is well known that litter from fast food outlets goes up to 5km away and unfortunately we see a lot of it at Birchwood Forest Park.

"I suggested this location for McDonald's first litter pick and so I am pleased that they have acted upon it.

"I will happily work with any organisation that wants to do its bit in keeping our community clean and tidy, especially parks and green spaces that are highly valued by local residents."

McDonald's has also highlighted its ambition to continue working with residents to help bring an end to littering, which along with fly-tipping, costs the council more than £600,000 a year.

A spokesman added: "McDonald's is committed to working with local communities to tackle litter and has done so for over 30 years.

"The number of hours McDonald's UK crew spend on litter patrols equates to an annual investment of over £9,000 per restaurant – a total of over £10 million for all UK restaurants in 2013.

"In 2014, across England, 364 events took place with 12,059 volunteers – 5,684 McDonald's crew and 6,375 members of the public."