Litter Louts - The Accidental Smallholder

Posted: Sunday 27 March, 2005

by Rosemary at 8:30pm in Anything goes 2 comments Comments closed

I am absolutely sickof litter. Tonight when I went to feed Smokey, I took the dogs for a run across the fields at the livery yard. I started puling plastic carrier bags out of the hedgerows and putting them in my pocket. After a wee while, I had to start using one of the carrier bags as my pockets were full.

The amount of litter is an absolute disgrace. Our local Council seems unable or unwilling to do anything about it. Dan and I periodically pick litter from the road along to our house. Last time we did it, we spent about three hours and took thirteen bags of litter off quite a small stretch of road. You wouldn't know we'd done it now and we really should do it again soon.

The road past the livery yard is relatively quiet so seems to attract fly tippers and those who like to find a field gateway to eat their takeaway in, then they toss the packaging out of the car window.

Clackmannanshire is still quite rural - towns in the countryside. For a small area, there are lots of good paths and they are well used but it's so spoiled by the litter. Someof it is dropped by path users (WHY?) but a lot of it comes from passing cars.

There was a community action group called "Pride of Place" which organised litter picks, but I haven't heard anything about it for a while. It was two local businessmen who ran it. Both had tourist businesses, I think.

Anyway, when I come back from holiday, I'm going to try to organise a litter pick at the yard. I hope the Council will provide "helping hands" litter pickers and black bags. I'm also going to write to the Council to find out what it is planning to do about this scourge.

I'll keep you posted.