Curmudgeon's Rant

Ok, I've done the inward navel gazing bit and now it's time to let my inner curmudgeon out for a good airing!

I live in a tiny village in Somerset, population 305 at the last census, and we're reached by single track lanes and though within a few miles of the A303, we're actually quite remote as villages go. The next village along from us is Barrington. It's a picture post-card type place with long, low thatched cottages and Barrington Court, a National Trust place that has very lovely gardens. Sadly, Barrington Court acts like a magnet for the seasonal grockles to flood down the green lanes at every holiday period.

Until "good" Friday, our lanes were green, dotted with daffodils and budding leaves and the occasional muddy puddle, which is par for the course in Somerset. Travelling down those same lanes yesterday, they were littered with sweet wrappers, carrier bags filled with litter or bags just blowing in the breeze and numerous plastic drink bottles and cans.

Why do people come out to the country to throw litter in our hedgerows and lanes? Surely, the people who do this come to the country because it is a beautiful place and they want to be amongst the green fields, spring lambs and beauty of nature. If they come for that, then why do they ruin the thing they desire to see with their detritus? Is it that they are so used to living in cities where there are road sweepers and people to pick up after them that they don't even think about the effect of their actions? Do they think that there are teams of council workers lurking in our hedgerows just waiting to pick up their rubbish? Do they even think?

It is such a sad time of year, when the holiday season begins and the grockles swarm through this lovely county. We rarely see any sort of council cleaning teams in Shepton; occasionally they send in the curb cleaning lorries after we have had our regular winter mud slides so it is possible to differentiate the road from the pavement, but apart from that, we don't chuck litter on the ground. On the rare occasions it happens, children who throw it are told to pick it up and if the perpetrator isn't about, we villagers pick it up and put it in our own bins. That way, the village stays nice and the lanes stay green and only dotted with flowers.

We now face up to six months of this thoughtless littering. I would ask everyone that reads this to think about what you do when you go out into the country. Rural areas are not well served by cleaning teams from local councils - in fact, the service is pretty abysmal. There aren't men in hi-vis vests lurking at every hedge to capture the ejections from your car window, so don't eject. How hard is it to put your rubbish into a bag and take it to a litter bin, or even take it home with you? If you want the countryside to remain beautiful and a place that you desire to visit, don't spoil it with your thoughtless littering.

Lastly, how would you feel if I drove up your suburban street and ejected my wrappers and drink bottles on the pavement outside your house?