Stratford litter group call for Warwickshire-wide strategy towards tackling rubbish

AN environmental campaign group in Stratford has called on the Warwickshire Waste Partnership (WWP) to produce a litter strategy. Rubbish Friends recently addressed the partnership, an organisation set up by the Warwickshire County Council, and used the opportunity to call for the strategy.

The strategy would be based on a UK government national litter strategy published in 2017 that outlined sending a clear message to those who litter, having clean-ups across the country and improving enforcement against those who litter. This third point also said the government would provide guidance to local authorities on using these powers appropriately.

Rubbish Friends wants to see local authorities carry on where it left off. In the meeting with WWP, the group referenced a litter strategy launched by North Devon Council which has three objectives to tackle the issue. These are to create effective procedures to ensure that litter problems do not build up, to examine the causes of littering and to work with organisations and schools to extend the capacity for action to address the problems of litter.

Rubbish Friends has been working on some of these within the community, and trustee Tor Wilkes took up an option at the end of the WWP meeting to talk about what this strategy would look like for the council. Talking to the Herald, Tor and Claudine Pearson, who is also a trustee, explained the strategy and why litter picks don’t get to the root of the litter problem.

“I wanted to encourage them to develop a litter strategy for Warwickshire, which would then need to be rolled out and adapted for the different types of councils,” Tor said.

“We would want WWP to largely take on the strategy of North Devon Council, but not completely; the principle would be a litter strategy which is preventative rather than just reactive.”

She added: “It is a cultural shift to where it becomes unacceptable to drop litter. As with anything, why would we assume that we’re the only ones facing this problem therefore, what are others doing? What can we learn from others?”

The Keep Britain Tidy report, A Rubbish Reality, revealed that seven out of 10 people say they notice litter every day.

Tor and Claudine agreed that Rubbish Friends could do their own research with town partners and provide evidence to authorities.

Tor said: “I suggest that if we were to repeat that survey in Stratford, it would be similar so if we accept there’s a problem, it would be wonderful if as a county we could do something about it. Let’s do it in Stratford, but it would be even better if it was a countywide initiative.”

Local schools have been supportive of the efforts to keep Stratford tidy, and Claudine says the group enjoys working with children.

She added: “We want to get involved and we also find that by involving children they are less likely to litter, so that has a positive impact on their friends. The local schools have been amazing, the children are really enthusiastic. We’ve done lots of picks with the local schools and they see it as a genuinely pleasurable activity but equally they are shocked by the amount of litter.”