Change behaviours to combat littering

TO combat littering we need to change behaviours. This requires education and, yes, ultimately enforcement action.

However, the way in which that enforcement action is delivered can be productive or counter-productive.

Third party enforcement agencies tend to have a financial incentive to be ‘proactive’, at the expense of common sense.

The latest incident involving bird food and pigeon-feeding being a case in point.

The Tidy Britain Group website gives several examples of what constitutes litter and bird food is not among them.

However, it would appear that litter, to local authorities, is like weeds to a gardener i.e. anything that should not be there.

If they ever remake the original Mary Poppins it may have to be minus one song!

If the problem is with scattering the food on the ground may be a transportable feeder that keeps the food off the ground is the answer!

Perhaps a better approach would have been for the agent to explain that whilst the person concerned may not think of bird food as litter in scattering it on the ground it unfortunately becomes litter and that any further incidents will result in enforcement action being taken.

Everyone likes a free meal, including the pigeons, but they and the gulls are primarily interested in the safe nesting sites the city’s buildings provide.

And, to correct the cabinet member for climate emergency and neighbourhood services, the signs on the litter bins solely refer to gulls not the wider bird population – even including a picture of said species.

I await to see if what appears to be a zero tolerance policy towards the litter problem survives the Christmas Market.

T Clifford, Peasedown St John