The leader of a Nantwich litter picking group says scenes like these are becoming all too common, writes Hannah Youds.
And mounting debris and rubbish dumped by people has prompted Nantwich Litter action to issue a plea for help – despite already having 106 members.
Patrick Robinson, who leads the group, said littering and fly tipping has been an issue in the town for a while.
And fears are that pandemic lockdowns are only making it worse as more people venture outside for walks.
Patrick, a resident in the area for over 20 years, formed Nantwich Litter Action just last year in response to ‘”he awful state of the local streets”.
He said: “At 5am it looks lovely, but afterwards it is an all-day mayhem and this happened before lockdown arrived in March, too.
“Now, it is common to find at peak times overloaded areas of litter on the ground blowing around.”
Some areas the group covers includes country lanes, coppices, back alleys, residential streets, river edges and car park shrub areas.
“We find most litter is discarded from moving vehicles,” he added.
“The hedgerows are full of cans, bottles and takeaway boxes, some have been lying there for years.”
Patrick said the group has filled and collected more than 800 bags of rubbish and with more awareness and help from volunteers, they can reach their goal of 1,000 bags collected in a year.
The group is currently 191 bags away from this goal.
“Sadly, only 20 of our members regularly pick, which is a shame as to pick it can be merely a 30 second job, grabbing a couple of items of street litter and picking for around 30 minutes to an hour.
“We are looking to double the membership so we can fully cover the new areas of housing that seem to be close to the canals, riverside and rural areas.
“With more residents comes more litter, and given we now need to spend more time outside, this is a constant battle keeping everywhere in the town tidy.
“A successful town means a better quality of life for all,” he added.
The group is looking for a larger audience and would like more children and families to get involved.
If you’re interest in becoming a member, you can find out more by joining their Facebook group Nantwich Litter Action.
A lot of the litter on the North side of town comes from Reaseheath students who now walk to Sainsbury’s in their hundreds to buy lunch and discard the wrappers as they eat on the way back. How about involving them in some educational litter picking? Many of them don’t live in Nantwich, they are bussed in from all over Cheshire.
Funny you should say this, I am a member of this group and this week students from there have applied to join the group to contribute to environmental studies, so yes hopefully it will improve and lead to them taking their litter back with them.
Crewe & Nantwich Borough Council used to do this, and clear the weeds but since we were cursed with the useless Cheshire East the place looks like a depressing dump because councillors would rather spend money on rainbow flag events
Haha, I suppose this was back in the 1970’s, prior to massive take aways in the early 1980’s. Times were different then, more attractive parks, flower beds, no street weeds, but also then every householder in my street scrubbed their steps weekly, swept the paths, cleared the gutter litter and bashed any kid over the head if they dare drop a sweetie wrapper. No times have certainly changed, but I know what is to blame. Eating in the streets, big no no years ago, and an entitled population, yet still looking down their noses at those who sweep the streets for a living. Time they took responsibility for their own rubbish/dog bags
Well done lovely to see children involved, they will have to live longer in this planet we have trashed, so much disrespectful behaviour now seen as normal life, just look at Crewe fly tips everywhere
Wow, there are some really lovely folk out there, big thanks goes out to them, they are community stars.
In other countries all the high school students do this as part of their education on the environment and helping tourism thrive by keeping their town looking great.
I must say the town looks so much better these days, especially given we are all out exercising so much!