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Time to make the culprits pay for filth on our streets
• THERE is a serious litter and rubbish problem in Camden Town today and every day, but particularly last Sunday.
As I write, it is a rather windy afternoon and rubbish is strewn across Royal College Street, the lighter plastic bags of rubbish blowing around and others blowing onto the road where they are driven over by vehicles, dispersing their nasty contents still further.
Watching this situation, most people just walk on by taking no interest in their home town at all.
It is bad enough our having to live in a city with street dumps, where rubbish piles up at certain points until collected by the local authority, but that is better, I suppose, than the rubbish being left anywhere and everywhere.
Seafarers take note of the weather and secure ships and boats accordingly.
While I don’t expect the landlubbers of Camden Town to have much sea sense, is it too much to ask that they see sense and don’t deposit their bags of rubbish, cardboard boxes and the like, on the pavements and kerbs of Camden Town when it’s going to be windy?
The public’s attitude to litter and rubbish continues to be a national disgrace and I am embarrassed at the prospect of visitors to London 2012 witnessing this sorry state of affairs.
Surely it is time for some new thinking about waste management and street cleaning, such that those who manufacture the materials we discard daily pay towards the cost of keeping streets clean?
Indeed, I would suggest that increased prices clearly state that the increase is due to a tax on litter. The increased cost of goods will, hopefully, encourage the consumer to put pressure on the manufacturers of products to use less packaging; it may even encourage individuals to change their slovenly habits and dispose of litter properly.
The result will be good for the environment and almost everyone will benefit in some way. In time, if we improve our litter habits, the tax should be reduced or abolished.
Meanwhile, regardless of it being a Sunday, it would seem smart that on a windy day, the local authorities take the necessary action to ensure that rubbish is cleared away appropriately.
Lester May
Reachview Close, NW1
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