Hundreds of volunteers will be doing their bit for queen and country this weekend when they take part in the Clean For The Queen campaign.

Litter-picking activities are being held from today (Friday) ahead of the official celebrations to mark Her Majesty’s 90th birthday in June.

The nationwide campaign wants people to tackle the growing menace plaguing Britain’s streets, countryside and wildlife, and has designated March 4-6 as the Clean For The Queen weekend.

Children from St Mary’s Primary School in Swanley will start their clean-up today when they will join forces with volunteers from West Kent Housing Association and other local agencies.

Starting from the Clocktower Pavilion at Swanley Town Council at 10am, they will be out between 10am and 12pm.

Children from St Fidelis Catholic Primary School in Erith are also organising a litter-pick tomorrow between 1pm and 2pm, while another group of volunteers will meet at Erith Library at 10am for the start of their four-hour clean-up.

Higham Beavers and Cubs will be working extra hard as they are taking part in the campaign to achieve their My World and Our World challenge badges.

The pack will be out in force in the village from 5.30pm to 7pm.

Cadets from 110 Detachment in Crayford hope volunteers will join them between 9am and 5pm on Saturday to tackle the rubbish left by fly-tippers in an alley next to their unit in Swaislands Drive.

Litter-pickers will be out and about in Cobham Terrace, Greenhithe, on the same day from 10am, meeting at McDonald’s.

Organiser Natalie Chapman said the area had been “looking nasty” with rubbish for sometime and it was time to turn “a grot spot into a hot spot”.

Shorne Community Litter Pick starts from Shorne Village Hall car park, 10am-12pm, while Meopham Parish Council will hold its tidy-up from Meopham Green from 10am. Both are on Saturday.

The Saturday spruce-up continues in Hartley from 10.30am when volunteers, including members of the Hartley Walk to Health Group and Hartley Community Choir, set off from Hartley Country Club.

Northfleet Big Local, Ebbsfleet United Football Club and Gravesham council have teamed up to tackle any rubbish in the roads around the Stonebridge Ground between 10.30am and midday, while volunteers are also wanted for the Chalky Bank Clean-up, meeting at Tollgate Services off Wrotham Road, Gravesend, from 2pm. The Big Swanscombe Community Clean-up will be held from 11am to 4pm on Sunday, meeting outside the kebab shop in Stanley Road.

Organiser Gina Sefton said: “There is so much litter and dog droppings and I think I speak for a lot of our community that we simply don’t want to look at it anymore. There are hardly any street bins, which doesn’t help.

“It would be good to pull together as a community and teach today’s youth to get involved.”

Other clean-ups have been organised in Chalk on Saturday, March 12, and Gravesend’s Cyclopark on March 15.

James Stewart, organiser of a litter-pick in the villages of South Darenth and Horton Kirby on March 20, said: “It would be lovely for people to come into our village and see no litter.

“It is our full intention to clear as much as possible in the hedgerows and roads in the village.”

Free litter sacks are available from Waitrose in Longfield and Horton Kirby and South Darenth Parish Council.