Welsh council to spend over £1000 a day removing litter thrown from cars
A Welsh council estimates it is going to cost more than a thousand pounds a day to remove litter thrown from cars along a stretch of road, and is warning drivers to expect delays while the work is carried out.
Bridgend County Borough Council is warning motorists that traffic will be down to a single lane along some sections of the A48 this week whilst workers safely remove litter and rubbish from the highway verge.
The clean-up exercise, which will begin on Wednesday 28 March and is expected to take up to five days to complete, will cost around £6,500 and is being funded directly from council budgets.
The litter and refuse has accumulated in shrubbery, trees and bushes running alongside the highway after being thrown from passing vehicles.
Councillor Rhys Goode, Cabinet Member for Wellbeing, said: “Anyone who drops litter or who flytips waste is hitting themselves in the pocket as the cost of cleaning up the mess falls to council taxpayers.
“In order to remove it, we have to introduce special traffic management measures such as using impact
protection vehicles, and close down sections of the route to provide a safe working environment for staff.
“All of this costs more than a thousand pounds a day to provide, and because it can only be carried out between certain hours, we also have to factor in issues such as overtime costs as well as the inconvenience that removing the litter could cause for other drivers.
“This is, of course, money that could be far better spent on providing vital services, especially at a time when council budgets are being squeezed for every penny and the cost of living crisis is hitting us hard.
“Our message is simple: take responsibility for your own rubbish and recycling, use one of the many public litter bins that are located across the county borough, or dispose of it at home using the kerbside service – don’t let taxpayers pick up the bill for dealing with your mess.”
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It’s absolutely deplorable! People just don’t give a damn. It is often said that the Welsh are proud of their country – well, I don’t believe a word of it. A minority are and that’s all.
I totally agree with you. It’s a national disgrace.
Blaenau gwent, rhondda, merthyr, caerphilly, pontypridd all the same. Absolutely disgusting. Rubbish everywhere. Just thrown out of windows. Every road now is embarrassing.
Top Idea: Offer a reward of half of any fines raised for people who provide photographic evidence of littering of any type and watch the money roll in….
Almost impossible to get photographic evidence of someone throwing litter out of a vehicle. It’s done in less than a second and you have no warning of when it will happen. Very few dash cams about.
Angen gwahardd y gwehilion caridymllyd rhag gyrru. A’u gwahardd rhag cael eu claddu yn nhir y wlad hon y maent yn ei sarhau ac yn byw fel gelod ar ei chefn.
Our McDonald’s Daily Mail culture breeds people into being peasants. Serfs do not care about where they live because they have no investment in its success.
Only that this is a great insult to peasants everywere, who are often deeply cultured and love their land as the land sustains them. These modern type of of ‘peasants’ are just lowlife scumbags and parasites with huge egos who would never survive a day in the life of a real peasant. They need a good punch in the face.
there speaks a Waitrose Twitterer !
Major offenders on the A48 Stormy Down stretch are lorries overloaded with waste for disposal. For some daft reason many of these loads are only secured with some sort of flapping mesh drawn over the trailer/skip. Absolutely useless when travel at anything above crawling speed or in strong winds like you get at Stormy ( hence the name!)
A benefit of the lockdowns was a lack of rubbish along the roads. Literally with an hour of our local McDonalds re-opening, the rubbish was back.
Time to print reg no’s on drive-thru packaging, so people can be fined. As some of them are far too selfish, entitled, and ignorant to dispose of litter responsibly.
I like your suggestion.
Those who commit this crime justify their behaviour by saying that the council will clean it up, but they don’t think that we all pay to clean up their rubbish. They are probably those who are first to complain when the council has to make cuts to public services when the money used to clean up the mess left by fly tippers could be better used. Our politicians and environmental campaigners are quick to point the finger at companies that are polluting our rivers, but silent when it comes to fly tippers who are polluting our countryside and harming wildlife.… Read more »
I often wonder if the reason why so much is thrown from cars rather than taken home to be binned is the culprits hiding what they are eating from their mums or wives.
Don’t you just love these car driver?. The cyclist haters. Very unusual to see a cyclist throwing their rubbish out in this way, if at all.