A British resident in the Algarve spends three hours each morning, picking up rubbish at the side of the EN125.
Ian West says he is hates a rubbish-strewn roadside and does his bit to make the Tavira council area a little but tidier every day.
The 63-year-old veteran moved to Conceição de Tavira five years ago and in the past five weeks has filled up 137 bin bags with plastic bottles, paper, cans... “a mix of everything."
West hails from Nottingham and decided that his new civic duty in the Algarve would be a daily roadside clear-up. He also is in training for a charity walk he plans to undertake in the UK to raise money for guide-dog training so is getting into shape.
"Between October of this year and August of 2019 I am going to walk the coast of the United Kingdom and by doing this, I keep my legs flexible because age no longer forgives," said West.
English does not blame the Council for the trash along the EN125 roadside and says that road pollution is not a problem unique to Portugal, "Unfortunately there are dirty roadsides everywhere so I am paying a little bit back to society for living here. Local services try to do everything with little money and time so if I can help ... I do this to relieve them of some work."
Ian is continuing throughout the summer months when traffic volume it at its highest and rubbish thrown from cars presents visitors and locals with a poor impression of the Algarve as a clean place to be in.
