A 7 year old resident has been making good use of her time away from school by using her talents to create a colourful artwork to thank the borough’s essential workers – her local bin collectors.

Clara Baxter from Dagenham, a Year 2 pupil at Thomas Arnold Primary School, did a painting in honour of her borough’s refuse collectors, thanking them and reminding them to stay safe.

Clara said she decided to create the painting “to say thank you and to make people happy.”

Councillor Syed Ghani, Cabinet Member for Public Realm, said: “This is a really touching tribute from a young resident and I join her to say thank you to our staff on the frontline – we are proud to say we are still delivering a weekly service despite the testing circumstances.

“You can do your bit by not putting out extra things like DIY waste or garden waste with your normal household waste at this time. This will help us to focus on normal bin collections which are our key priority at the moment – THANK YOU.”