A BLACK Country brewery didn’t waste any time in answering a plea by Stourbridge litter pickers for sponsorship to help keep the town streets clean.

TidyStourbridge issued an appeal for help to buy a year’s worth of bin bags strong enough to hold all the various types of waste collected during the group’s twice monthly litter picking outings.

And within hours of the news hitting the Stourbridge News website, Bathams Brewery offered the £149,94 needed to enable the group to buy 600 heavy duty refuse sacks favoured by the Keep Britain Tidy organisation.

Volunteer Roger Kendrick said: "Thanks to the article in the Stourbridge News, Matt Batham of Bathams Brewery very quickly stepped in and purchased the required refuse sacks. We’d like to thank the Stourbridge News and Bathams Brewery for their help with this problem.”

He added: “Following on from Bathams's offer we've also had a number of other offers of sponsorship and we’ll be taking some of these offers up because we need extra equipment nowadays to cope with some of the fly tipping we come across.”

The group issued the plea for help to buy the bags earlier this week after hope of a previous sponsorship deal fell through.

The group's next Pick'n'Pint session will take place on Sunday February 9 from the Bull & Bladder/The Vine, The Delph, Brierley Hill, with further outings planned for February 23 from The Gigmill pub, The Broadway, Norton, and March 23 from the Samson & Lion pub, Brierley Hill Road, Buckpool, Wordsley.

For more information about the group’s activities check out www.tidystourbridge.org.uk, www.twitter.com/tidystourbridge or www.facebook.com/tidystourbridge