A six-year-old girl who fished out bundles of rubbish in her net on a trip to her local lake has set up a litter picking club to encourage her neighbours to join her in taking action.

Roberta Heavey believes ‘Trash Takers’, which will launch after the summer holidays, is the answer to the piles of litter she found discarded in Highams Park Lake and the surrounding area.

The aspiring activist, who is in Year 1 at Oakhill Primary School in Woodford Green, made posters to whip up support for her mission and went on to lead an assembly at her school to urge other children to get behind her.

“No matter what you do in life, we have to sometimes get up and do what is right and try and help out, said Roberta, of Richmond Avenue, Chingford.

“I think it’s important to care about our environment and stop air pollution.

“I recently went pond dipping with a group of children to find out what creatures live in the lake but ended up pulling out gummy bear wrappers, bottles, crisp packets and bin bags.

“It makes me angry and sad at the same time. I don’t see the people who are doing this, I only see what they leave behind.

“It was just horrible – when I saw it, it looked really yucky - and I thought, if I make a club and try my hardest to work on it I could stop it.”

Trash Takers, which is open to children and adults, will meet once a week to scour the ground of Highams Park Lake with gloves, bags and litter pickers.

Mum Marijke Steedman, who regularly takes Roberta and her 10-year-old brother Tommy to the park, said she wasn’t surprised when her daughter came up with the idea because she’s always been “an innovator”.

She said: “She is a bit of a leader and seems to have a really strong commitment that something needs to be done about this.

“We tell her that if you want to make the world a better place you can and it’s important to respect your environment and work as a community to make it the best it can be.

“We are very aware of the life of the lake and of the baby goslings we see and she knows that some of them may not make it to adulthood.

“She’s very creative and we talk often at home about political stuff and what’s going on in the world.”

And when Roberta presented the plans she had drawn up to her teacher and classmates, she said they were so impressed they all vowed to support her club.

She added: “They were amazed and my teacher said ‘Wow, how brilliant that you came up with such a good idea to change the environment’.

“After leading the assembly I put a sheet up on the wall for people to sign up and everyone in my class signed it so I was very happy.

“I think we will have a lot of fun with this.”

The first meeting will take place at 4pm on Wednesday, September 12, outside Humphrey’s Café in Highams Park.