26th January 2012

DORCHESTER: 'We do have a problem'

Litter campaigners plea to councillors to help clean up town

By Trevor Bevins

DORCHESTER councillors heard at their November meeting that the county town does not have a litter problem.

But it took three volunteers less than an hour this week to collect eight bags of rubbish from short sections on the approach roads to both rail stations.

The debris included pizza carriers, empty beer and cider bottles, shopping bags, clothing, abandoned road signs and bollards, food remains and four full cans of lager.

“And all of this on two of the roads where people entering and leaving the town will get an impression of what Dorchester is like,” said litter campaigner, Bob Kerr.

On Tuesday evening he took photographic evidence of the Stop the Drop collection to the full meeting of Dorchester Town Council to ask for their help in doing more to both clean up - and persuade people to stop jettisoning their rubbish in the first place.

By the time the volunteers had walked across the Market to the West Station, and back again to the South Station approach road, someone had left a crisp packet and a plastic bag on the area which had just been cleaned. Fifty yards away, outside the entrance to the town’s historic Maumbury Rings was an abandoned family-sized chocolate tin full of food waste and wrappers.

“It really is quite incredible to me that people can behave in such a way, just throwing down what they don’t want and hoping that someone else will pick it up for them, or not caring what happens,” said Stop the Drop volunteer Alison Kaye.

The campaign group, which is backed by the Dorset branch of the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE), was behind the scheme which has put up 90 metal containers for cigarette bins throughout the town in a move to tackle smoking-related litter.

In a statement to town councillors on Tuesday evening Mr Kerr pointed out that in interviews carried out with more than 200 residents in September, 19 per cent objected to the litter they saw around the town.

“We invite any member or members to join us for an hour’s stroll around town to witness at first hand the many litter black spots that remain month after month, disfiguring our Dorchester. And, despite the thousands of pounds that have been invested in special standing bins and our own efforts in funding, selling and installing wall mounted cigarette butt bins within the BID district, one can still find thousands of cigarette ends on the pavements outside betting shops, pubs and cafes, not to mention the County Hospital.”

He said this was despite one of the group’s members Felicity McLaren, giving out over 1,000 ‘stub tidy’ containers to smokers over the past year.

“Littering is a crime whether it be a cigarette end or even a match stick.

“Just yesterday a few of us had a litter pick on the corner of Weymouth Avenue and Station approach – adjoining the pavement leading to Dorchester South station - a route taken by many hundreds of residents and visitors alike each week.

“The Dorchester Morning Womens Institute had twice litter-picked this same spot over the last three years. Yesterday we filled eight bags, plus dumped road signs, lanterns and other items.

“There are other black spots similar to this throughout town. Please don’t say we’re litter-free or that we don’t have a problem – we do have a problem and it’s getting worse.”

PICTURE: Stop the Drop chairman Bob Kerr and volunteer Alison Kaye with eight bags of rubbish collected in less than an hour from the approach roads to both of the town’s rail stations

DORCHESTER: 'We do have a problem'

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