Keep our countryside clean

Sir, Coffee cups, sandwich wrappers, crisp packets, cigarette ends, plastic bottles, drinks cans, dead animals, detritus left from road repairs and bits of crashed cars.

Well, it is that time of year again, and the foliage on our highways and byways has died back and there it is, laid bare for all to see.

Rubbish, rubbish, rubbish! It is everywhere, and there is more and more every day.

I don’t know about others, but I was always taught to take my rubbish home and put it in the bin, not to litter the countryside. There really is no excuse. I know there are cutbacks in services, but for the most part, this rubbish is obviously thrown from car windows, or it is the remains of the fish supper on the way home, or it may be the remains of the picnic, albeit tied up neatly in a carrier bag and left at the side of the road.

Why is it that some of us, who live in one of the most beautiful parts of the world allow all this litter to accumulate?

What makes people think it is acceptable to deposit litter at the side of the road, with a notion that someone else will pick it up; and no consideration for the wildlife in our countryside.

We rely so much on tourism in Scotland, and I for one feel ashamed of the way we portray our countryside to the many foreigners who visit, they probably leave our shores with the vision of a dirty, unkempt place, which no-one seems to care about.

It seems to me that the SNP, which is so proud of this wonderful place, should get out on to the roads of Argyll, to see for themselves what a mess it is in.

It has got worse in the past two years.

How on earth can they think about becoming independent if they can’t even do the housekeeping properly – the very basic of duties?

Nicola Holt, Burnside, Carradale.