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Volunteers of all ages who want to participate are asked to meet at 2pm in Bellfield Park. The clean up should take approximately an hour and other areas of the town will be tackled if sufficient volunteers come and help. All volunteers are asked to come suitably dressed and to bring thick protective gloves. Tabards and collection bags will be provided and litter pickers also, where possible.

The Scottish Co-op will be providing refreshments at Bellfield Car Park and Tesco has also offered refreshments in store for those volunteers who may be working at the eastern end of the town.

Bonnie Banchory members hope that their actions will show the rest of the community how big an issue litter has become – and that dropping rubbish is not acceptable. Not only do littered streets and parks damage business and tourism opportunities but it also costs Scottish council taxpayers £65 million a year to clean them.

Last year in Scotland, more than 83,668 volunteers took part in 1,406 clean up events as part of National Spring Clean during the month of April- an all-time record. The average quantity of litter collected per person across Scotland was enough to fill 42,000 domestic wheelie bins.

Christina Brown, co-ordinator of Bonnie Banchory and Banchory bags Campaign, said: 'We want to encourage as many volunteers as possible to take part in Banchory's clean up. It will show others that we have pride in our town and its environment. By working together and taking responsibility for our surroundings we can make the dropping of litter totally unacceptable and keep Banchory litter free.'