This morning I took part in the litter picking event organised by the Grasmere Village Society. Together with my wife and son we collected litter alongside the A591 where it borders Grasmere lake.

There was the usual mixture of rubbish: beer bottles, fishermen’s bait bags, together with larger items including debris washed down in the floods.

Afterwards we drove, with a full car boot, to Ambleside recycling centre. There we were told we could not leave what we had collected because it was ‘not domestic’. We needed to get a licence and take the larger items to Kendal (about 30 miles round trip).

Rather absurdly, we could not leave a broken blue recycling box we had collected, because it was ‘the property of South Lakeland District Council’.

Fortunately, a degree of common sense prevailed, and we were left to return home only with a car tyre and that box.

We had been feeling quite pleased that we had been able to clear up a lot of unsightly mess decorating the lake shore, visible to all passing the ‘Welcome to Grasmere’ sign. However, it is unfortunate that officialdom should hinder rather than assist attempts to alleviate the universally acknowledged problem of litter.

With the cuts experienced by local authorities, there is no chance that resources are available for them to do the kind of clearing up we did this morning, scratting around in wellies among the undergrowth. The authority ought to encourage local groups to undertake work like this.

No doubt staff at the recycling centre, who in my experience are normally very helpful, were simply following orders. Their present orders are an incentive to fly tipping.

If they were allowed to use common sense in these matters it would contribute in encouraging people to avoid littering. Fresh instructions are needed.

Paul Truelove

Grasmere