Bordon has been given a clean start to 2025 by group with bags of enthusiasm.

There was no New Year’s hangover for local members of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community as they began the year with a dawn litter pick.

Around a dozen residents and volunteers – including a reporter from the Herald – joined them for the 7am tidy-up with paths and roads around The Forest Centre being given an early spring clean.

Conditions weren’t ideal as the pickers battled strong winds and rain – not to mention a lack of sunlight – in a bracing start to the New Year.

But they still managed to fill more than a dozen bags within 45 minutes, with a traffic cone, tyre and miniature shopping trolley being among the recovered items.

Bordon New Year Litter Pick
More than a dozen bags were filled and a small trolley was also recovered in the clean up. (Tindle/Paul Ferguson)

The experience certainly “blew the cobwebs away” while scout leaders, WI members and community-minded residents were among the party.

“I just thought it would be a nice way to start the New Year, by doing a good deed,” said Bordon Belles WI member, Fliss Cooper.

“The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community does this every year,” said councillor Adeel Shah to pickers who gathered in the shopping centre.

“On the first of January we get together at 6am, we prayed together and now we do this. It’s giving back to the community and we do this every single year.”

He added: “We’re starting the New Year by giving back.”

The undergrowth beside the path alongside B&M which links the shopping centre to Forest Road was a grotty spot with numerous empty cans and several tied-up bags of dog waste being pulled out of the undergrowth.

Volunteers were thanked for their efforts with a free breakfast before several Ahmadiyya members travelled to Portsmouth to deliver toys to children in hospital.

The community held similar New Year events around the UK.