Too few people make a stand on seeing an act of littering yet it’s happening all around us ALL of the time. Keep your eyes open in just about any town centre and you’ll witness these acts of environmental vandalism with depressing frequency.
FM urges readers to either confront the culprits or, if considered a bit ‘tricky’, get the police involved. Get those PCSOs doing something CONCRETE for their money.
Here’s part of The Sentinel’s report:
“OUR new leader here at Stoke-on-Trent City Council has already started to settle into his new role and is getting to grips with the issues this city faces. Councillor David Conway and his coalition partners have been clear from the outset that they wanted to address the immediate street level issues that affect people’s everyday lives. That determination is already very visible. Fly-tipping and litter is a continual blight for many residents and the new administration has been quick off the block in tackling the problem.
Councillor Conway has made the war on anti-social behaviour one of his top priorities, and set up a special fly-tipping task force with four additional response teams to tackle the problem. He has pledged to gather the evidence needed to track down fly-tippers and litter louts and put them before the courts. In July, the team brought two more criminals to justice with two successful prosecutions for littering. The teams on the front line have a massive task ahead of them. More than 1,600 tonnes of fly-tipped waste and litter are dumped each year. Sometimes people are just ignorant about the consequences of their actions, but most of these acts are wanton criminality, which have a disproportionate effect upon the lives”
‘Litter’ does not make for pleasant reading; FM would much prefer to report on matters piscatorial. But until littering is put on a par with other – less important – social misdemeanours and to the point where the public unthinkingly seek a litter bin for their waste, it’s up to the likes of us to make a noise. Speak to parents and to those shop-owners who seem to care little for the mess outside on the street. Got the balls and commitment? Speak to schoolkids in their classrooms and take along photographic evidence of what discarded tins and burger boxes do to their surroundings, but do take contrasting pics of what a clean and tidy environment looks like.
