Cornwall

PANORAMA: NOTES ON A DIRTY ISLAND

When writer Bill Bryson first arrived in Britain in 1972, he thought he'd found the loveliest, most cared for country in the world.  His massive bestseller Notes From a Small Island celebrated the intrinsic worth of our thoroughly pleasant isle and won the national poll to find the book which best represented modern England.

So, how is modern England doing? Reporting for BBC's Panorama on Monday 11 August, in a personal and passionate account, Bill Bryson says he's appalled at how we now treat our surroundings like a rubbish tip, and castigates our apparent inability to walk or drive anywhere without leaving a trail of litter.  He tours the country, illustrating the scale of the problem, whilst also demonstrating that change can be achieved and we should not despair of the task.

Bill says, "Travelling for Panorama I was reminded of just how beautiful this country is and also how routinely trashed it is by people that leave litter and fly-tip.  Studies show that it's done by a very small proportion of people, and of the people who dump litter, high proportions can be persuaded to change their ways, and that's what gives me hope. We easily filmed enough material for an hour long documentary, but I hope people will enjoy the 30 minute impact of Panorama and then be inspired to help us".

As president of the Campaign to Protect Rural England, Bill Bryson believes he's just the man to challenge us to clean up our act and, more importantly, to clean up Britain.  To that end, he has launched CPRE's Stop the Drop campaign ^[1] as a crusade against litter and fly-tipping. Visit file://www.cpre.org.uk/ to find out more.

Watch Bill Bryson's Report - Notes on a Dirty Island - on Panorama on

BBC One at 8.30pm, on Monday, August 11th 2008

NOTES

1. Stop the Drop is the CPRE anti-litter and fly-tipping campaign managed by CPRE and headed by Bill Bryson. For further details visit http://www.cpre.org.uk/

Editorial Comment

We have been receiving reports from CPRE members about the difficulties they face when endeavouring to eradicate litter.  Stephen from Hayle recently attempted to persuade local authorities and the Highways Agency to clear up litter from the A30 Hayle By-Pass, but it took an intervention from his local MP, Andrew George, before the litter was cleared.  A number of abortive contacts with the Highways Agency, Penwith District Council and Cornwall County Council had failed to achieve anything before the MP became involved.  Stephen has also been in touch with Network Rail to remove litter from railway land, but with so many caveats in place Network Rail was able to dodge the issue!  It seems that either one authority assumes that it is the responsibility of another authority to undertake the clearance of litter, or that authorities pass the buck when it comes to litter clearance or just prevaricate.

As far as CPRE Cornwall is concerned there are several issues that need to be tackled in order to keep our county free from litter:

• educate people about the harmful effects of dumping litter and fly-tipping
• reduce the amount of packaging
• end the practice of charging commercial companies for their waste
• provide more easily usable re-cycling facilities
• provide and regularly empty more rubbish bins
• provide more environmentally-friendly ways of waste disposal
• provide more resources to local authorities to clear up litter
• provide better policing against those who leave litter or fly-tip
• provide greater penalties for dropping litter or fly-tipping

Although it is very commendable to organise local litter clearance campaigns, this really is a last resort - and reliant on volunteers.  If the Government has any desire to tackle litter and fly-tipping, then local authorities should be given the financial resources and the necessary manpower to deal with the problem.

Hopefully, Bill Bryson's report next Monday on BBC 1's Panorama programme will at least cause people to reflect on the way litter and fly-tipping ruins the environment and everyone's quality of life.  It may also persuade those in authority to do something about it.

Meanwhile, we can all do much to tackle the problem of litter by not leaving any litter behind whilst out and about, and not dumping unwanted waste on other people's land.

Ted Venn

9^th August 2008