Opinion : Put litter in the litter bin and do not make a mess
What a shame, another Bank Holiday weekend is over but what an enjoyable one it was.
Last Friday evening was spent getting my extensive garden ready for the holiday weekend. Cutting the lawn, tending to the plants in my greenhouse and picking up the litter which some passing rascal had thrown into my front garden.
The remainder of the weekend was taken up at my neighbours house watching the exciting finale to the snooker World Championships on their trusty television. What an exciting match it was too.
Being with friends on a Bank Holiday is most enjoyable, what’s more there is always lively debate and conversation on topical issues. One such topical issue at my neighbours home last weekend was the headline that appeared on the news section of this site last Saturday headlined ‘TWO tonnes of litter removed from A404 Marlow Bypass‘.
It’s unbelievable that over two tonnes of rubbish could be discarded by motorists along such a short stretch of road. In fact it’s outrageous.
Apparently the bypass is cleaned of litter three times a year at of cost of £8,000 each time.
Eight thousand pounds to clean such a small stretch of road seems a bit high to me. It may be a dangerous job with cars whizzing past at such great speed but surely rather than employing a contractor to do the job it would be cheaper to get some young offenders or members of the unemployed masses to do the task for a fraction of the cost.
I assume the litter that accumulated on the bypass was thrown from moving vehicles which itself is dangerous as an unwanted tin can when thrown from the window of a moving car could all too easily hit a vehicle following behind.
Of course it’s us, the Council Tax payers of the Wycombe District, who will have to foot the bill for the clean up operation. With three cleans a year costing £8,0o0 each that’s £24,000 wasted cleaning up waste that should never have been there in the first place.
The question is what can be done? I fear very little.
I suppose some signs could be installed informing motorists not to throw litter but they are unlikely to have any great effect and besides someone will have to pay for the signs to be erected which I suppose would be our good selves namely the local Council tax payers.
Litter is the scourge of modern society, indeed it’s amazing how much yours truly collected from my garden last Friday evening. A few tin cans here, some pieces of paper there and the odd crisp packet soon mounts up indeed by the end of my own clean up in my garden your humble servant was left with a nearly full dust bag of other peoples rubbish to dispose of.
In these times of fortnightly black bin collections every cubic inch of bin space counts and I’m most upset to find myself filling my bin up with other peoples rubbish.
What do you think?
*Don’t forget my blogs are published here twice a week every Tuesday and Friday evenings around 8pm.