Cosmo the dog, and the creation of The Wombles Community Charity

My dog, Cosmo, is totally obsessed with fetch! So much so that I had to stop taking balls out with us on our regular walks, as he would pester me so much. He’s clever too! So, when I didn’t take a ball with me, he’d go off and find one (I have literally dozens of pre-loved/chewed balls at home).

But… when he couldn’t find a ball, he would often return with a plastic bottle he found along the river bank or in the brambles. This created the ‘go find a bottle’ game which satisfies his breed instincts (he’s a Vizsla) but it got so that I needed to take a bag with me to collect the bottles he found, highlighting how much litter there was along our stretch of the River Colne.

I started going out specifically to pick litter while walking Cosmo. When Covid ‘lockdown’ arrived, our litter picking walks became daily adventures which inspired the creation of ‘The Wombles of Wivenhoe’, a Facebook group that soon had over 300 members. 

One of my Wivenhoe Wombles asked about the group using the ‘Wombles’ logo but being a lawyer, I knew that we did not have the rights to such Intellectual Property. I tracked down Craig from Wombles Operations to ask if we could call ourselves ‘Wombles’ and we got chatting about the work we were doing in our small Essex town and his vision for groups like ours which I was surprised to hear were so numerous. It was not long before Craig came to our offices in Colchester to discuss the formation of a national charity to support and assist community litter picking groups and to supplement the education of primary school students about environmental matters. Thus The Wombles Community Charity (TWCC) came into existence of which I was very proud and delighted to be asked to serve as its first Chairperson.

I look forward to helping TWCC help those great and many Wombles out there who are keeping their part of the country clean and tidy which in turn will make more people more mindful about their litter and give confidence to others to go out and Wombles.

• Jolyon Berry (Chair of Trustees)