Twelve posters designed by pupils at King William Street Church of England Primary School are being displayed around Eastcott, where residents have been battling problems with dumped rubbish.
The colourful designs encourage people to recycle, dispose of waste responsibly and put their bins out on the correct collection days. The project, called Waste Away!, was organised by the Prospect Place Conservation Area Trust using a £984 parish council grant.
It follows months of community clean-ups aimed at tackling discarded furniture, overflowing rubbish and bin bags being ripped open by wildlife. Among the winning designs is a poster by pupil Fenna featuring the message:
“Don’t litter, make your streets glitter.”
Fenna told Swindon24:
“I also made it bright so that people can immediately see it and will see that you shouldn’t litter.”
Another pupil, Ella, encouraged residents to be part of the solution rather than the pollution, highlighting that there is no planet B.
Elisha focused on the dangers that discarded rubbish poses to animals, including foxes.
“They might eat it, get sick. They might die because of sickness, because they can’t get it out on their own,” she explained.
Matylda designed an interactive poster featuring a miniature bin, while Danny spent four hours working with his mother on a design reminding residents about waste collection days. Rafael said putting rubbish in bins would also help waste collection workers.
“If it’s all in the bins, then it’s easier for them,” he said.
The competition was open to Key Stage 2 pupils, with 12 winning designs selected for display at 15 locations across the neighbourhood.
Local businesswoman Tina Mason, who runs Mason Millinery in Prospect Place, suggested involving children after taking part in community efforts to tackle the rubbish problem. She said residents had already been working hard to improve the area through regular litter picks.
“We all do fortnightly litter picks in this area, which I’ve been really involved with since moving into the area,”
she told Swindon24.
“The streets are definitely cleaner for the big clean-up and things like that that have been going on in the community trust area.”
Ms Mason hopes children will encourage their parents to take greater responsibility for household waste.
“We’ve all told the adults, the council put letters through the door telling us what to recycle and when, when to put the bins out, and so we needed to involve the younger generation.
“So by educating them, we send them home, and they get to talk to their parents and encourage them to put the bins out on the right day and to recycle.”
The initiative follows the launch of the Eastcott Community Clean-Up in October 2025, when around 100 residents joined forces to tackle fly-tipping. Local resident Jeremy Lune organised the effort after becoming concerned about the amount of rubbish being abandoned in the neighbourhood.
By February, volunteers had completed three major clean-ups and reported a substantial reduction in the amount of dumped waste being collected. However, problems have continued, particularly when bin bags are left outside too early and ripped open by foxes and seagulls. Ms Mason has also raised concerns about rubbish left behind by departing tenants, calling for landlords and letting agents to take greater responsibility.
“I think that the landlords need to have more control over their tenants and take some responsibility for cleaning the rubbish up too,” she said.
She has suggested introducing local bylaws to ensure landlords and letting agents are responsible for properties being properly cleared at the end of tenancies. Swindon Borough Council has previously said fly-tipping costs more than £200,000 a year in clearance and enforcement.
The authority announced plans in July to increase enforcement in known hotspots and remind landlords of their responsibilities for maintaining properties and bin storage areas. A separate town centre clean-up in August resulted in more than eight tonnes of litter, vegetation and fly-tipped waste being removed.
King William Street headteacher Helen Tucker said the poster competition had developed from environmental lessons at the school.
“It stemmed from a topic actually that they did in class, and they became very environmentally aware as a result. And this really has just flourished on the back of that development,” she said.
She hopes the posters will encourage residents to change their behaviour and take greater pride in their neighbourhood.
“This is our young generation trying to make it better for the whole community.
“The posters around the community do look fantastic, and hopefully it will make people keep their community tidy.”
Ms Tucker also expressed support for similar projects being introduced at other schools across Swindon. The weatherproof posters have been produced by Minuteman Press in Newport Street and are being displayed in Prospect Place, North Street, Prospect Hill, Western Street and Dover Street, among other locations.
They will also appear at the school gates and are scheduled to remain on display from October until Christmas. The organisers hope the children’s messages will help prevent further littering and fly-tipping, building on the work already carried out by residents.
