Teamwork best for litter pick

OVER the past few weekends a small group of socially-distanced volunteers from Proud of Ashbourne have cleared litter from the A52, between the roundabout at the top of Derby Hill and the roadworks for the new airfield roundabout.

The job had seemingly not been done for years and in some places litter was lying so thickly that you could fill a sack whilst standing still in one spot.

The total collection amounted to an astonishing 86 full sacks, plus assorted debris such as wing mirrors, tyres, a picnic table and broken bollards.

All this from just one mile of road! It’s tempting to criticise the council for leaving it to volunteers, but that would be unfair.

Our outings collectively totalled to more than 65 hours of work and its obvious that the council does not have the resources for this.

The fault lies with the mindless minority who casually chuck their litter away.

However, if the litter volumes we found are perpetuated across the whole road network, then the problem is massive and drastic action is needed.

I would like to see the councils harnessing the energy and commitment of the many volunteers who want to do something to help.

We deliberately chose to go out on Sunday afternoons, with roadworks substantially slowing things down – even so the traffic was at times frighteningly fast, with many drivers paying no attention to the speed limits.

If we can be given proper protection from the traffic, and help with publicity and logistics, then many more volunteers would surely be persuaded to step forward.

Forty people could clear a mile in a couple of hours.

Working together as a team with the councils taking the lead (Derbyshire and Staffordshire) we could work miracles.

Sue Moore Proud of Ashbourne