HEREFORDSHIRE'S mysterious little picker has been hard at work again.

Along the A438 between Hereford and Ledbury, just past Tarrington, two piles of purple "stop the drop" bags could be found.

It's likely to be the handiwork of Tom Collingwood, with the now-pristine roadside verge suggesting we have pride in where we live.

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We tried to catch up with him to see how he's getting on with his clean-up mission but he's as elusive as ever.

Do you know where we can find him? Email news@herefordtimes.com if you can. We've spoken to him before but want to update readers about his one-man mission to keep Herefordshire's roadside verges clear of litter.

Hereford Times: Thomas Collingwood with just a fraction of the bags he's filled as he clears litter from the verges on the A465 between Hereford and the Welsh border at LlanguaThomas Collingwood with just a fraction of the bags he's filled as he clears litter from the verges on the A465 between Hereford and the Welsh border at Llangua

Thomas Collingwood, familiar to many as Geordie, previously filled hundreds of sacks with the litter drivers have thrown from the windows of their cars and lorries when he was working his way up the A465 between Hereford and Abergavenny.

And that was after his war on littler on the A49 between Hereford and Leominster.

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Those who spot the piles of purple bags at regular intervals, waiting to be collected by Balfour Beatty, are surely left amazed by this keen volunteer's handiwork.

Mr Collingwood, who lives in Hereford, explains that it is his love of cycling that led to his Herculean litter-picking missions. That, and having no TV or internet.

In 2021, he said: "So I do a lot of cycling and that's how the litter caught my eye.

"And on a bike you think a lot about things," and one of those things was wondering why someone living in an expensive house wouldn't bother to pick the litter up outside.

"So I thought, 'I'll do that', and that's how I ended up doing it."