"Litter" used to be just the odd sweet wrappers and empty cigarette packet/foil/cellophane.Now it seems to be empty pizza boxes - unflattened like so many food boxes and so often placed thoughtlessly blocking the successful use of the bin by anyone else. Multiple cans, bottles - glass and plastic, plastic food boxes, uneaten food just inviting the wildlife loved and unloved to spread that and the bin's total contents around, nappies and just about any other general household rubbish for which as householders most of us are already paying Council Tax for a regular kerbside collection. The larger the bins - the greater the amount is just dumped there... We walked past one recently with a dead fridge beside it... and as for the mattresses... It must have taken some effort to get those there.Some people including a teenage group of five witnessed in broad daylight this last weekend - just get up and walk away leaving all their food packaging on a picnic table WHEN they have been sitting a couple of yards away from a group of large clearly labelled and prominently placed wheelie bins. What has happened to "Take Your Litter Home" and "Leave Only Footprints"? That's how we care for places. We were always taught to take our litter home as children. We should be passing this on to our children and our children's children. In Oxfordshire recently I passed a litter bin that had written on it: "If you want your bottles and cans to be recycled please take them home with you". We've always done that anyway and we've planned picnics so that there is little if any waste. That message should have been written on bins years and years ago - to remind EVERYONE that this is what we should be doing instead of expecting yet another service that some people seem to want and yet no-one really wants to pay for and which should be unnecessary.Council Tax goes towards many other things including that KERBSIDE COLLECTION OF OURS that we are lucky to have and many other countries don't have.
Philippa Bond ● 15d