A DETERMINED mum is giving up her Fridays to tidy New Cumnock with her children after becoming ‘overwhelmed with sadness’ by the amount of litter ruining the area.

Hannah Wilkins took her children to the Burns Cairn to let them explore and hear the Scotish Bards iconic poetry.

But the family were stunned by the rubbish that met them spoiling the stunning surroundings.

The blogger mum was so shocked by the broken Buckfast bottles and mess she decided to take matters into her own hands by organising a weekly clear up.

Hannah wants to make sure people can still be inspired in the same way Robert Burns was famously inspired by Ayrshire’s beauty. The mum-of-three hatched the plan to clean up every Friday with her kids, and wants others to get involved.

The family have high hopes others will get involved in the tidy up action and can put a stop to yobs trashing the area.

Hannah said: “My children and I came across the Burns Cairn and we talked about this great poet’s inspirations.

“While there, we discovered that there was a large number of discarded pieces of litter around the area which made us feel quite sad.

“We spent the next hour picking as much as we could find and later took it to the local skip. I know that Burns wrote ‘Flow Gently, Sweet Afton’ based upon his time walking along the banks of this beautiful river.

“My children asked if there was a way we could ask the community to either take their rubbish home or get the council to put a bin in this area.”

In her blog about the experience she added: “As we took a moment to look down to the river Afton from the top of the bank, I was suddenly overcome with sadness as I saw the sheer number of discarded bottles, cans and empty containers all the way down to the river.

“As a family we decided to spend the next hour picking up as much of the litter as we could find to make the area tidy again.

“On January 25, all of Scotland celebrate their annua Burns Supper in honour of their national poets birthday. In some ways it felt as though - in a small way - we were honouring his memory of this beautiful area of nature by removing the litter that makes land like this become ugly so very quickly when individuals lazily pollute it.

“May each of us remember our part in the care and stewardship of this beautiful earth.”