Don't Mess with Wiltshire campaign is making a rubbish difference

Wiltshire Council’s Don’t Mess with Wiltshire campaign has so far seen more than 35,000kg of litter collected from the county’s roadsides, parks, rivers and verges.

Don’t Mess with Wiltshire focuses on littering in towns and parishes, plus litter hotspots such as laybys and on main roads including the A36 and A303. The campaign also focuses on more enforcement of litter offences – including CCTV cameras in lay-bys on main roads and officers to prosecute persistent fly-posters, plus educational resources to encourage people to responsibly dispose of their litter.

Since its launch in January, there have been:

• Two complete litter picks of the A303 and A36, equivalent to 315 miles, collecting 591 bags of rubbish and resulting in approximately 8500kg of litter being cleared. The teams collected 102 tyres from these two lengths of roadside alone.
• 2,837 miles of rural verges have been litter picked, collecting 1,421 bags of rubbish, resulting in approximately 18,500kg of litter cleared.
• Idverde and the council have worked in partnership to provide 47 community litter pick groups meet on a regular basis and together have organised over 110 community litter picks. Between them they have donated over 1,100 hours and collected 1,424 bags of litter, equating to roughly 8,244 kg.
• The partnership also delivered 51 school litter picks, where one school alone had 200 pupils take part and 25 bags of litter collected.

Cllr Nick Holder, Cabinet Member for Street Scene, said: “We’ve made a commitment in our Business Plan to take responsibility for the environment, and the Don’t Mess with Wiltshire campaign plays a big part in that. Litter is not only unsightly, spoiling our beautiful and scenic landscapes, but can also be a danger to wildlife and drivers on our road networks. In addition, cleaning up litter across the county costs us in the region of £2m each year.

“Wiltshire is a large, rural county covering over 1,300 square miles, and try as we might, we can’t be everywhere.  Therefore, as well as our own litter picking teams, we also rely on the help of community groups and members of the public reporting litter hotspots to us. I’d like to thank those who have played their part in helping us to keep the countryside clean, either by disposing of their litter responsibility, by taking part in a community or school litter pick or by highlighting a problem area to us via the MyWilts reporting app.“

To report litter in Wiltshire or to find out more about the campaign and how to get involved in a community litter pick, people should visit www.wiltshire.gov.uk/litter.