Saturday morning, 9 o'clock, 7 runners met at the edge of a park, but it was not parkrun. Instead our early-risers had agreed to forgo their weekend lie-in to pick up litter on Port Meadow.

Things have improved on the meadow in the last couple of weeks, but around the May bank holiday weekends the council removed 3 tonnes of litter some days. Horses and cattle graze the meadow, and a number have been injured or killed by the trash people are leaving behind.

The ranger Julian supplied us with bags, litter pickers and gloves, and asked us to circle the edges of the meadow checking for litter. At first glance it didn't look too bad, but nonetheless we filled 8 bags with discarded glass bottles, cans, plastic bags, clothing, crisp packets etc, even fishing a number of cans and bottles out of the river (which felt precarious at times, but fortunately no-one fell in!).

We had a few chats with local residents keen to join the effort to keep the meadow clear of litter, and after an hour and a half we left feeling a lot more positive about the chances of the area remaining in a slightly better state in future. (That may be a triumph of hope over experience.)