Richard Benyon's Westminster Diary, March 19 2009

Richard Benyon MP • Published 19 Mar 2009 12:30 0 Comments

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ECENTLY I was driving along Burys Bank Road. The car in front had just left the drive-through McDonald's by the Newbury retail park.

The family were guzzling as they drove and when they had finished the mother reached into the back and taking all the waste and packaging proceeded to shove it out of her window.

I caught up with them at the next junction and remonstrated with them.

My fury was compounded at the sight of two children in the back who were being brought up to believe that this is what you do with litter. To avoid the confrontation becoming more than just a vigorous exchange of views I moved on, but the image has stayed with me. I know there are more important things to worry about at the moment than litter but I am sickened by the attitudes of a few people who are doing such damage to some of our finest places.

The problem is worst in our towns. Some weeks ago I joined a community litter pick in Hungerford. I filled two dustbin liners in just a few minutes.

The good news is that something can be done about it. The Campaign for the Protection of Rural England, under its inspirational president, writer Bill Bryson (it takes an American to embarrass us into dealing with this problem), has released a report called Litterbugs. It details how the amount of litter has shot up by 500% since the 1960s and how local authorities are left to foot the bill of an estimated £500 a year.

Bryson says: "We must build civic pride in clean and tidy environments, with communities competing to be spotless. Only then can we stop the exasperating and routine vandalism of a country so rich in natural, cultural and built heritage."

His report goes on to show how in other countries littering is reduced by 80% by simple, logical ideas that fit in with human nature. Availability of bins, the frequency with which they are emptied and the restoration of old fashioned deposit schemes for some items are just some of the ideas in the report.

Furthermore it goes strong on education. Over time, if we better educate people and stop the perception that litter is somehow 'someone else's problem', then we can get to the root causes of this blight on our towns and countryside.

Nothing short of a shoot-to-kill policy might prevent the family I described earlier from their attitude to littering but the vast majority just have to be helped to see what is happening and to make it easy for them to "bin it not chuck it".

This blog appeared in Reading Chronicle 19 Mar 09

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