Employees from Santander’s Llandudno branch recently spent the day at Conwy Estuary with Keep Wales Tidy where they spent the day litter picking.

The activity saw eight volunteers from the bank, along with their families, picking litter along the Conwy Estuary at the RSPB site in Llandudno Junction.

Litter (particularly plastic) poses a real threat to our seas today, and causes death and injury to hundreds of thousands of seabirds and marine species every year through swallowing and entanglement.

Items of particular danger to marine wildlife include plastic bags, drink cans and fishing nets, and as a result, Keep Wales Tidy tries to undertake this activity every 6 months.

Keep Wales Tidy is a Welsh national voluntary environmental charity which works towards achieving "a clean, safe and tidy Wales". It works in partnership with Local Authorities, schools and community groups, and organisations such as Waste Awareness Wales and Environment Wales in order to achieve these goals.

Gwyl Roche, Project Officer at Keep Wales Tidy, said: “I would like to extend my personal thanks to the cheerful, enthusiastic Santander volunteers. We’re incredibly grateful for the work they completed; they did a fantastic job, filling eight bags with litter creating a welcoming environment for the community to enjoy whilst removing items of plastic and litter that might pose harm to our marine life”.

Cheryl Tittensor, branch Manager at Santander’s Llandudno branch said: “It felt great to be able to give something back to our community. We chose this area as we knew we could make a difference, which became evident once we’d finished our work.”

Santander’s Discovery Days scheme encourages staff to take a day out of the office to volunteer with a local cause.