April 2: Time to tackle the ribbons of litter that blight Yorkshire countryside

ANDREW Vine’s depressing piece (The Yorkshire Post, March 24) will have struck a chord with all those who despair at litter and those responsible for it. Our roadsides have become permanent ribbons of filth thanks to the millions of ignorant people who chuck rubbish from their vehicles.

Given a nice weekend you can guarantee that litter will be heading for a pleasant location near you in cars laden with all manner of liquid refreshment, popular snacks and confectionery items, whose packets, wrappers, bottles and cans will be carelessly left on the road.

During these cash-strapped times we simply can’t expect the council to follow litterbugs around to clean up their mess.

Thankfully there is a growing band of unofficial litter pickers who quietly go about this unglamorous and never-ending task. A bin bag, a litter grabber (I got mine from Wilkinsons) and a few spare minutes each week is all you need to clean up your patch. As for the litter droppers, well they can all go to hell.

From: Karl Sheridan, Selby Road, Holme on Spalding Moor.

ISN’T it about time that we began to respect our countryside? Years ago we were instilled with the motto ‘Take your litter home with you!’ and yet these days our roadsides and grass verges are awash with litter and debris.

Driving through the wonderful moorlands and Dales, the county is blighted by the amount of rubbish at every turn. However it is those who drop the litter who are the dross of society – too idle or lazy to take responsibility for what they consume or buy. One wonders just what sort of grubby person they are in their everyday life – certainly not someone I would like to know!

Sadly, however, it’s a fact of life that we do have these degenerates in our society, but partial remedy is available via the Government. It’s quite simple, we have criminals sitting in jail doing nothing constructive and yet they could be out litter picking. Yes, I am aware that those on community service do a small amount of litter picking but that is very small scale and merely a token effort. What I suggest is that we should tackle this big-time. We have a huge labour force sitting idle and that could be doing something constructive.

Tourism is the one industry that is actually growing in this country, and yet we have the filthiest countryside going. Let the Government use the free resources at their disposal. Keep Britain Tidy!