Touring coaches add to the roadside filth

Foreign lorry drivers are not the only culprits dumping litter in lay-bys (Let’s Get Tough With The Filthy Truckers, Letters and Opinion, Kentish Gazette, March 3).

A couple of weeks ago, as I was joining the A2 from Wincheap, travelling west, I saw two touring coaches parked in the lay-by opposite the slip-road and the drivers were transferring filled black plastic sacks from their luggage holds to the side of the road next to the park-andride perimeter fence.

Unfortunately, the coaches were not marked and as I was concentrating on joining the flow of traffic safely I could not look to see if they were foreign or British coaches.

Also, for months there has been a pile of filled rotting sacks in the lay-by on the A2 between the Harbledown slip-road and the Gate Services at Dunkirk. Hilary Spon Iffin Lane, Canterbury

I was sad to read your recent story on lay-bys being used as rubbish dumps and now attracting rats.

Not very long ago there was a similar article about the dangers of the increasing number of rats along the path by Simon Langton Boys’ School – again an area strewn with litter.

We are not winning the fight against litter louts.

The amount of litter on roadside verges, lay-bys and many paths is appalling.

Surely something can be done to tackle the root cause of the problem.

I believe littering is an offence for which the irresponsible can be fined. This is clearly ineffective.

We need a publicity campaign informing people how much of their taxes have to be spent on tackling litter and flytipping, pointing out how money saved in this area could be better spent on mending potholes or other issues of real concern.

Many of us care passionately about the irresponsible and thoughtless way so many people drop their litter.

Surely it is not beyond us to make a real difference in tackling this very real and increasingly concerning problem. Ann Parkin The Ness, Canterbury years ago, like the roads to Thanet Earth, but the last major road improvement was down near Wye in 1988!

I would suggest the objectors should turn their attention to Kent County Council, who are responsible for the roads, and lobby them and the secretary of state for transport to improve the road infrastructure around Canterbury.

Now the upgrade of the roads around the east Kent coast appears to be completed, the time is right for Canterbury to get its roads brought up to modern standards, starting with the A28 forming part of the bypass south of Canterbury, where it is proposed to build most of the new houses. Mike Armstrong Queens Avenue, Canterbury