What can be done to clean up the litter plaguing our streets?

PEOPLE’S apathy towards litter in their area astounds me. My council seems to have given up trying to keep my area clean, apart from the tourist areas. The roads are rarely swept and there are few litter bins. The result is that people seem to accept this filthy environment as normal. Green spaces and even some front gardens are eyesores. Without a sea change in attitudes, education and funding, there will be no end to this problem.

G. HULL, Broadstairs, Kent. IS THERE a town in the British Isles that can beat Wrexham for rubbish-strewn streets? Our once beautiful tree-lined verges are littered with plastic debris. Can’t the council send workers with a shovel to clean it up? Could the residents of the recently opened super-prison nearby pay for their room and board by street cleaning? Or would that conflict with health and safety? I only hope the summer visitors we rely on so much use another route to Wales.

Mrs S. WHITFORD, Wrexham.

MORE effort should be spent in prosecuting people for

dropping litter instead of on motorists for driving a few miles over the limit.

JOHN LOWARCH, Oswestry, Shropshire.

SADLY, we live in a takeaway, throwaway society. Those who care for the environment do not litter. Those who don’t care are the problem. It’s laudable the Mail has rallied the public to help solve this ever-growing problem.

Mrs J. BEAUMONT, Huddersfield, W. Yorks.

I TAUGHT my daughters from an early age not to drop litter. If they had sweets or lollies, they would throw away the wrapping in a bin or take it home. If I saw anyone dropping litter, I pointed out to my girls it was wrong. This is just one of the many things that it is a parent’s responsibility to teach their children. Why expect teachers to do it?

KATHLEEN THOMPSON, Stockport, Gtr Manchester.

DISGUSTING litter beside our roads is a disgrace, but so is the failure to deal with it. In Florida, prisoners clear litter from verges and notices tell motorists who is doing the work. Driving through South Carolina, we didn’t see any litter. But there was this sign by the road: ‘No littering — $1,000 fine or prison.’

JOHN PRITCHARD, Ingatestone, Essex.

MY COUNCIL has picked up 1.3 tonnes of rubbish from the A38, including building materials and plastic.

JILLIAN HURLBUTT, Plymouth.

IT’S a shortsighted idea that councils should charge for the weight of bins. This would result in fly-tipping to avoid paying the charges. Surely bin collection is included in the expensive council tax. I have lived in Ireland where there is no council tax, but you have to pay for rubbish collection. To avoid this, some people burn rubbish in their gardens or dump it in the countryside.

Mrs P. FLETCHER, E. Yorks.

THE A14 between Bury St Edmunds and Cambridge must be the most litterstrewn road in England.

KEvIN COCKSEDGE, Stowmarket, Suffolk.

ON HOLIDAY in Lanzarote, I couldn’t get over how tidy it was. There was not a scrap of litter. It made me feel ashamed of England.

Mrs A. AMBROSE, Hemel Hempstead, Herts.