Litter and detritus in Christchurch

If there is one thing that gets my blood boiling its the trail of litter along the spur road from Purewell to the town centre which emanates from drivers tossing used food cartons from their vehicles,food bought from the various fast food franchises. For some reason this has been particularly prevalent over the last few weeks and is replicated right across the Borough. Together with the perennial problem of dog poo and the previously reported of general street litter on the way into and in our town centres and the pine needles and leaf detritus blocking up our gutters, this matter represents a real and growing challenge. Doing nothing is not an option here and I do understand that education of our kids at an early age as to the importance of pride in our communities is one of the key issues. As a result and with consultation with our port folio holder for the environment I have called for this matter to be the subject of an officer/member / Dorset waste partnership meeting to explore just how we can influence visitors and residents attitude to keeping Christchurch clean and tidy. We should be doing a number of things to achieve this. Starting with kids in school and engaging with all schools, engaging with the food franchises and making them more responsible, appealing to visitors to 'take your litter home', targeting areas of known leaf and tree debris so that they are dealt with in an organised way. Ward councillors and resident associations across the Borough have their part to play not just in organising litter picks, good community action which will have to continue ,but also taking the higher ground in actively pursuing and delivering a greater awareness of the problem in their ward areas. This is a borough wide day to day problem, not just an issue for events, high days and holidays. Not just for the highly visited coastal places and the other super events, it has to be a cultural change associated with residents and visitors taking responsibility for keeping Christchurch the special place it is. And this does not just mean more or bigger bins, more Council expenditure from tax payers for extra street cleaners, it is to do with communities understanding their responsibilities for having pride in their places and dealing with the matter at source. The strap line? Take your litter home.