Howden Park, Livingston, last Monday morning, so I'm told, looked like a total wreck. People walking their dogs were horrified that those who had been sunbathing and having picnics in the park in the weekend sunshine had just walked away and left their rubbish. There was left over food, bottles, cans, plastic wrapping, foil, all the detritus of an afternoon in the sun.
Whatever happened to putting it in a bin bag and taking it to the bin? Or taking it home and putting it in your own bin?
Chicken bones left lying could easily cause a small dog to choke to death.
But the prize for Selfish Muppet of the Week goes to the idiot who left the sharp, metal barbecue grill to rust in Edinburgh Meadows. A very brave 8 year old girl, the daughter of a friend of mine, fell on it last night. The result was 3 hours in Sick Kids' A and E, 5 butterfly stitches and a Tetanus immunisation.
A family's night out was ruined by the irresponsible and utterly selfish actions of an idiot. It could have been much, much worse.
I know that this is going to become perilously close to a "this never happened in my day" post, but we wouldn't have got away with it when we were young. Maybe because there wasn't so much packaging and stuff to leave behind then. We had a sandwich each and maybe a piece of fruit and a biscuit in a tupperware box so maybe there was nothing to dump.
Did we have a greater sense of responsibility then? Did we have it engrained into us that we needed to leave places as we found them?
What's changed? There must have been a litter problem then because otherwise there would have been no need for Keep Britain Tidy ads, as this 1975 film shows. I don't remember it, but I can't imagine anything with Jerusalem on it would have been played in Scotland, somehow.
Local councils should not have to spend our hard earned Council Tax clearing up after anti-social littering. What do you think is the solution?
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