14 April (Part 1) - Plastic Peter
As
ideas go, this one by Councillor Peter Craske is not a bad one, far better than
his decision to take up blogging, that’s for sure.
Quite why residents have to sign up in order to be motivated to pick up litter I
do not know. One of my neighbours scours all the local streets for litter once
or twice a week. She is often to be seen with her pick up stick and bag and has
been doing her little job for longer than I can remember. No sign up and
probably no thanks either and no Peter required.
My litter picking is mainly confined to tidying up at the local street bins
although sometimes they are so disgustingly contaminated that they require
professional attention.
My neighbour is not alone in her unofficial endeavours, a resident wrote to me
this week as follows…
I’m sick of seeing all the rubbish scattered around in my area, so while I
was out today on my mobility scooter I thought I’d collect all the plastic
bottles and drink cans and take them to the recycling bank by Morrisons.
It has gone!
It seems the Council have removed the banks due to fly tipping, so if I want to
clean up my area I now have to take loads of rubbish to Thames Road Centre. On my mobility scooter!
Bexley Council has progressively removed street collection points right across
the north of the borough - maybe elsewhere too but I have no info on that.
The bins to both the North and South of Abbey Wood station went a few years ago,
I suppose that they detract from the appearance of the new gentrified Abbey Wood
and The Maggot Sandwich reported the demise of
the Erith Morrisons bins a few months ago.
Perhaps the answer when you see a carelessly discarded plastic bottle is to
leave the bloody thing alone - or maybe sign up to Councillor Craske’s scheme.
Does he provide a bag and collection service? I doubt he will let me know.