Nantwich councillors have agreed on plans to try and tackle the mounting litter problem plaguing the town.
It comes after Nantwich Litter Group member Rob Carter made an impassioned plea for help at the town council meeting last night (April 27).
He said volunteers in the group were having to give up more than 100 man hours every week to try and keep the town clean.
Bins are regularly left over-flowing as people emerge from lockdown, and he said dog fouling had also increased.
Now councillors have agreed on four action points to try and raise awareness.
One includes running a campaign called “Dabbers Don’t Drop” in conjunction with schools, litter groups, businesses and other organisations.
Other ideas include increased signage around the town, a Spring Clean initiative campaign between May 28 and June 13 linked to the Keep Britain Tidy “Great British Spring Clean” event, and a promotional video to go out on social media channels.
Rob Carter told the meeting: “More and more people are going out, and we’re having to tackle more areas – all the way from the lake through to the Stapeley estate and into town.
“There seems to be more people littering with a blatant disregard for our beautiful town. There is an awful amount of dog fouling as well.
“As a group we put in more than 100 hours a week, we’ve run out of bags so end up buying our end – we feel like we are the unsung heroes at the moment. Nine times out of ten, bins are left overflowing. It’s disheartening.”
Councillors say Cheshire East‘s cleaning service ANSA is working above and beyond its remit, and that the real issue of funding the fight against litter and overflowing bins lies with CEC.
But Jeremy Herbert, of Sustainable Nantwich campaign group, said: “We need people to take responsibility – for themselves, and their children – and to get involved in their local community.
“It’s not up to the council or to the police – just because you pay a little bit of Council Tax. It’s up to all of this to tackle this.
“We need to stop this ‘entitlement’ culture. It’s not about poverty, there is so much wealth just being thrown away causing this problem.
“These are kids from good backgrounds, who are trashing the place they are going to inherit.”
One of the roles of the controversial “Town Ranger” appointment would be to tackle littering issues in the town.
On May 16, Sustainable Nantwich is to take part in the Million Mile Clean national pick-up event run by Surfers Against Sewage.
Members will be on Brookfield Park cleaning up as part of their plastic-free town initiative.
Council tax should cover this why do volunteers need to do it they always have to pick up the slack its not fair
Take it home, that’s what this is all about rubbish to your bin dog muck down your toilet
People need to take responsibility for their own actions. If you have rubbish – bin it. If there is no bin nearby or its full – take your rubbish home. When did the Human Race become so lazy?
But people do use the bins it’s just they are not emptied often enough. The dog bins along the Nantwich loop were overflowing for days the last times I went.
Nantwich Litter Action is keeping up the heavy end of litter collection in all our streets now, It should be up to householders to check the ends of their driveways and collect litter from the gutter, with some 250 members picking and thousands living here, there really need to be a sharp awareness of this blight. It is so lazy to throw when there are plenty of bins or even your own bin at home, and as for dog walkers, some of them are away with the fairies, is it devilment dog bags hang on trees or stuffed into bushes, about time they had a word with themselves, pure idleness, you are a disgrace to proper dog owners/