“We find all sorts of stuff, knives, needles, even a catheter bag last week!”

Spending your weekends litter-picking means you come across some pretty weird items every once in a while.

The Ossy Litter Pickers patrol Oswaldtwistle’s “grot spots” most Sundays in an effort to clean up their hometown.

Most bizarrely, the gang recently came across a catheter bag on one of their patrols, which is a tube used to empty the bladder and collect urine on a person, usually when they are in hospital.

“We come across some weird things but a catheter bag has got to be the strangest,” Kath Everett, who leads the group, said.

The medical urine collector The medical urine collector (Image: Ossy Litter Pickers) She added: “We think it was somebody coming out of hospital and they just chucked it onto New Lane in Oswaldtwistle, where we found it, after they had been discharged.

“When you think you’ve seen it all, we come across that.”

It’s not the first time Kath and the crew have seen an unexpected item, with a creepy-looking doll being discovered earlier in the year.

(Image: Ossy Litter Pickers) Kath explained: “We came across some knives in a secluded spot in Oswaldtwistle, which we had to then hand in to the police.

“We want people to be a little more responsible and take better pride in their area so we stop finding stuff like this.”

The list doesn’t stop at knives, Kath says. Syringes, odd socks, underwear, and stashes of unopened bottled beer have also cropped up.

Gas canisters, headboards from people's beds, and a motorbike helmet bolster the bizarre list of items found.  

A horde of gas canisters dumped in woodland (Image: Ossy Litter Pickers) Kath said: “Weirdly we even found brand-new and barely used gardening equipment in some places.

“We’ve even found discarded tools that look like they haven’t been used.”

A motorbike helmet (Image: Ossy Litter Pickers) She added: “Fly-tipping and littering is an ongoing issue in our area.

“Fly-tipping in our local beauty spots is always going on.

“It’s frustrating because people could just go online and get the council to come and collect their stuff.

“Surely it’s easier to just go on your computer than lug a load of rubbish in a van and then chuck it over a fence?”

Councillor Stewart Eaves, cabinet member for environmental services at Hyndburn Council, said: "We live in a lovely part of the county and it is currently being spoiled by careless littering and inconsiderate flytipping.

"We really need to take pride in the area we live in and I would call on any interested residents to get involved in the Adopt A Spot Campaign that Ossy Litter Pickers are rolling out and I would like to see it go borough-wide."