Litter
Parking Planning (updated) Litter (updated) Beyond Lakenheath Village (updated)	We do it to ourselves!! OK so some of it is blown in, and some falls off lorries and trailers, but mostly the litter is down to us. There are some elements though which fall under the control and responsibility of West Suffolk District Council. They are responsible for waste and recycling, and we are all grateful that the wheelie bin people keep going come pandemic and bad weather. They are also responsible for the removal of grit, mud, litter, debris and leaf fall from highways, lay-byes, bus shelters, subways, and council car parks. Mm.. We do see council employees occasionally litter picking, mainly in Lakenheath High St, and very occasionally the road sweeper will whizz through. Generally though, it is residents who have been quietly getting on with it; a lot of them do and we should thank them. We now have regular, organised Litter Picks in Lakenheath and there are individual residents who do their bit across the patch. That’s great, but the problem is being added to daily. Without making excuses, there is an element of “there’s a lot of rubbish around, so my little won’t make a big difference”; well sorry, it jolly well does, and I think that the other side of that coin – that tidy places tend to stay tidy – is what we should focus on to make a real difference. We will see what comes out of the Neighbourhood Plan work around the centre of Lakenheath village, and I hope that that will be a real boost. But beyond that we have all our other streets and footpaths. West Suffolk have put some bins out which they will empty on a scheduled basis, or if they are told of an overflowing problem. Out in the country there are no bins and individual farmers have to put in the effort and the cost of clearing rubbish (and those numbers can become scary with fly tipping). The District Council also provide dog bins and from time to time poo bags have been available. I don’t know anyone who understands the thought process involved in bagging dog poo then tossing the bag into a bush! It just adds non degradable plastic to the problem. Of the five bags of rubbish I collected on a path through woodland, nearly three were just dog poo. And it’s not the dogs’ fault! We have campaigns for both litter and dog fouling, but they don’t really work, and we have a system of reporting. There we put the onus on individuals to gather the evidence; apart from the fear of confrontation or abuse, there’s a natural reluctance to ‘snitch’. I am not aware of anyone from around here who has been fined after a report from a private individual. The standard of evidence is too high. Most dog owners are horrified at the situation, and a number have taken to politely offering poo bags to anyone they see offending. It takes away the confrontation and the offender seems to get the message – perhaps we can work on that as an approach to litter too? But we mustn’t let our children grow up thinking that it’s normal
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