Stafford - Drowning under a sea of litter

Franklin_Delano_Roosevelt said:

You could be right although sleeping rough in a bus shelter on the main A518 Weston Road by the Hospital Junction is hardly being inconspicous it is always incredibly busy along there

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Sleeping in a very public place is probably quite safe, if you can get away with it, but you will often be moved on. They may be new to it. Secret places are good, as long as they remain secret, but you can be very vulnerable if discovered by the wrong sort of people when out of sight of others, too....

Gramaisc said:

the wrong sort of people....

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Discussing Stafford's Litter Vortex* with Mohawk Pete the other day, he says that there has actually been somewhat less litter on the floor there since the area's bin was removed - which is rather interesting.

*Around the tree in front of Argos, at the back of where Woolworth's was.

Whilst wandering the countryside yesterday, I spent half an hour helping a farmer, whom I meet about once a decade, with some work on the gates here as I was passing. Amongst the many things that we discussed was the litter problem from walkers. He said that, after every nice weekend, it's necessary to have a quick run round the place as picnickers have the bizarre tendency to put everything that they no longer need into a black bag and neatly tie the top - and then just leave it there - but, of course, the foxes will open it up during the night, then the crows and the wind will spread it all about the place.

His verdict on walkers was that 90% are very good, 8% are mentally subnormal and 2% should be shot.

Franklin_Delano_Roosevelt said:

There was an article on the news this morning about the cost to the Highways Agency from picking up litter along the roadside - approx £10m. That is £10m that could be spent on road improvements and relieving congestion. I bet the litter throwers are the ones that complain about the state of the roads as they are sat in jams tossing their coke cans out of the window. Ironic.

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In April, before the grass had grown enough to start hiding it a bit, I drove south on the M6 from J13 and was astounded by the quantity of litter at the roadside. It was truly astonishing.

Dropping litter was something that I used to do when I was a kid. No, I'm not proud of it but it was just something that I did without really thinking. This all changed when I visited Germany on a school trip when I was 15. I got back to Stafford and realised just how dirty this country was with all the litter on the streets and the countryside. I have never dropped any litter since.

I have also taught my son not to drop litter. If we all did that, then the problem would subside and eventually be eradicated.

Franklin_Delano_Roosevelt said:

I fully support the proposal that points should be added to your driving licence if litter is discarded from your car - doesn't matter who in the car it is, you are the driver and you will pick up the penalty and fine. The increasing network of road cams should be used for this.

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A van driver was fined for just this offence on Beaconside a mere four years ago - it's a start..

Hi,

For the past few months, myself and a number of other residents in Forebridge have started doing weekly litter picks, because like many of you we dont want to live in a dirty neighbourhood just because there are some inconsiderate individuals who thinks its okay to drop litter. From our experience so far, we have found that the people who are dropping the litter are the individuals that are walking from Exeter Street over the Crinoline or people walking back from the KFC.
Since starting our weekly litter picks we have noted, that generally the amount of litter is dropping and less individuals seem to be dropping litter within the area. Therefore we are keen to extend this community led litter pick by finding more individuals within Forebridge who would be willing to join our quest for cleaner streets.
If any forumites live within Forebridge and are willing to spare ten minutes of the time per week it would be great to hear from you. Thanks in advance.

PS with regard to the Argos vortex mentioned previously I was walking through that area a fortnight ago when I in fact witnessed two youths dropping litter. When I challenged them and subsequently embarrased them they did put the litter in the bin. When I asked why they couldnt put it in one of the three bins they had just walked past I was greeted with a couple of grunts and I dont know. Obviously it is unfair to pidgeon hole all teenagers but they are certainly the worst offenders.

Stafford should take the attitude of Staffs Moors council. they are now fining everyone who are caught dropping litter £80 because the prorbelm is shocking in and aorund Leek, so it isn't just Stafford but the Moors seem to want to do more about it.
They are even going into schools to inform children they will also be fined and those people who fail to pay fines will see themselves in court with a potential of £2500 to pay.

I'd like to see more enformcement officers doing this in Stafford in key areas, such as the mess that is Stone Road, McDs, Tesco, Co-op, One Stop shop all in close proximity and the bin situation is very poor excep outside the Co-op.

wherever there's people, there's litter.

Litter is my pet hate too, always find the worst place is at the back of Sainsbury's over the Bridge. I have often picked up other people's litter and put it in the bin. Shame because Stafford is a nice place to live.

Notice some absolute morons had decided to clean out all of the McDonalds / KFC wrappers out of their car on Friday night... only problem was they decided that Martin Drive on Castlefields was the place to dump it all.... We're not talking a chocolate bar wrapper or sweet paper here, we're talking a carrier bag full of bags, wrappers, drinks cups, cartons....

Not the first time it has happened in fact its now a regular occurrence. In fact I have reported it to Stafford College before now and got zero response...

Anyone got some covert recording equipment that I could borrow.....

Not litter, but some bunch of twazzocks have wrecked the bandstand with graffiti overnight (I think - didn't notice it on way to station yesterday) >

Well well, well Stafford is fast becoming the graffitti capital of Staffordshire. The north end of Stafford is becoming an eyesore, but guess what, most residents don't care and the council even less so.

Stafford Borough Council's stance on graffitti is they don't have one, Stafford is way way behind the attitude to this than other councils, what Stafford offer puts them bottom of the pile cleaning up offensive remarks or their own property only.

When Stone was overed a few months back and the culprits were caught, Stafford BC would not clean up the mess nor did the produce fines we can be up from £80-£2500 (court).

Even on the own site it states graffitti is anti social behaviour and there is an Act in place to cover this. I guess the council will donoe nothing to find the culprits who did this damage whatsoever.

Anyonoe been up the side of the Baker's Oven recently. Wow Afater last years graffitti speight down Eastgate St paitned over by the properties owners down there I think, some of which can still be seen over Mark and Sparks. SBC do not even care even about the town centre.