HEALTH conscious youngsters at Dunster First School combined an early morning walk with a late spring clean. Members of the school's healthy lifestyles DASH Club spent nearly an hour clearing the verges and hedgerows of litter along the old A39 road between Dunster and Minehead. DASH - Do Activity and Stay Healthy - meets before school three mornings a week to learn about the right sort of foods to eat and to take part in a range of fitness activities. For the latest initiative, which began at 7.45am, the children, parents and staff were armed with plastic gloves and rubbish sacks, provided by contractors Cleanaway Ltd. Their efforts resulted in several bags of paper, plastic bottles, fast food containers and tins being collected, with the rubbish then being taken back to school for Cleanaway to pick up later. And once the litter was safely bagged up, the DASH Club members walked back to school, ready to start lessons on time at 9am. Headteacher Peter Hoyland said that, since the club had first started, the school had been very fortunate in the support it had received from the local community and businesses, including Minehead's Aquasplash leisure centre and Andrew's on the Weir restaurant at Porlock Weir. "This was our way of saying thank you and making a contribution to our local community. "In addition, hopefully the children, who were shocked at the amount of rubbish that had been left along the road, also learned about the importance of keeping our country tidy." Pictured from the left are Alice Milton, Tricia Shaw, Maddie Cooper, Debbie Wimblett, John Wimblett, Lucy Wimblett and Conrad Shaw. Photo: Steve Guscott.