The Countryside Alliance’s annual Countryside Clean-Up (20 March–6 April 2026) brought together individuals and groups across the UK, with hunt supporters joining forces to remove significant volumes of litter from the countryside.
Representatives from the hunting and wider rural community – including hunt officials and staff, farmers, landowners, subscribers and supporters – cleared rubbish from hedgerows, roadside verges, footpaths, riverbanks and fields. Alongside friends, families and neighbours, volunteers once again took practical action to protect and enhance their local landscapes.
Every pair of hands counted, with the Countryside Alliance and the British Hound Sports Association encouraging participation through locally organised events, from clean-ups around hunt kennels to tackling areas where litter poses a threat to wildlife, livestock and the natural environment.
Common items collected included takeaway coffee cups, plastic bags and bottles, crisp packets and fast-food packaging, highlighting the ongoing issue of roadside and rural littering.
Polly Portwin, Director of the Campaign for Hunting at the Countryside Alliance, said:
“The Countryside Clean-up has once again shown the incredible difference local communities can make when they come together. In just a couple of hours, volunteers have made a lasting impact on the places we all care about. It’s been inspiring to see such strong local support, with people connecting through parish councils, noticeboards and community social media to get involved. This collective effort really highlights that the more hands we have, the greater the positive change we can achieve.”
Across the country, local efforts made a tangible impact. Supporters of the Cambridgeshire Hunt with Enfield Chace collected more than a dozen bags of rubbish, while the Warwickshire Hunt engaged children in high-visibility clothing, demonstrating the breadth of community involvement. The Bicester with Whaddon Chase Hunt gathered seven bags of litter from rural lanes, and the Quorn Hunt organised a post-Easter clean-up, removing a wide range of waste, including large numbers of coffee cups.
The Countryside Alliance has also recently launched a new interactive rural crime map, designed to give communities a platform to report and highlight crime in the countryside. Rural crime – including fly-tipping, theft, poaching and livestock worrying – continues to impact livelihoods, wellbeing and safety, yet is often under-reported.
Findings from the Alliance’s 2025 Rural Crime Survey underline the scale of the issue: 96% of respondents consider rural crime a significant local problem, 73% believe it has increased in the past year, and nearly 40% have been directly affected. Despite this, around a third of incidents go unreported, often due to a lack of confidence in outcomes.
The new map aims to address these gaps by capturing real-world experiences, identifying hotspots and trends, and providing robust evidence to support engagement with government, policing bodies and other decision-makers.