Comments from a clean county
Best-selling writer Bill Bryson is angry with the British public, and justifiably so. The reason for this anger is litter. Oxfordshire is one of the cleanest counties in England but Oxfordshire Waste Partnership (OWP) still supports Bryson's inspiring anti-litter crusade.
Bryson first came to Britain in 1972 after falling in love with a tidy, orderly and civilised country, but as he revealed on last night's BBC Panorama: Notes on a Dirty Island, it's sadly not the place he fell in love with.
During the half hour BBC special, Bryson highlighted the stark contrasts in cleanliness across UK towns, cities and countryside. What appalled the famous author most was how we Brits now treat our surroundings like a rubbish tip, and have an apparent inability to walk or drive anywhere without leaving a trail of litter.
As president of the Campaign to Protect Rural England, Bryson believes he's just the man to shame us all into cleaning up our act and, more importantly, into cleaning up Britain.
With over 94 per cent of areas areas above acceptable levels of cleanliness, Oxfordshire seems far removed from some of the images in Bryson's film, but even at the top there’s room for improvements. Cllr John Tanner, chair of Oxfordshire Waste Partnership is keen for Oxfordshire residents to play their part in making the county an even more desirable place to live: "I'm backing Bill Bryson all the way. Oxfordshire maybe one of the cleanest counties in the country but we could be better still."
OWP is supporting the national Big Tidy Up campaign during September by providing litter-picking equipment for groups who want to organise tidy ups in their areas.
Individual partner councils are all playing their part in keeping the county clean. This includes operating covert camera systems and focusing on businesses regarding waste documentation because of the link between unregistered waste carriers and fly tipping: an item highlighted in Bryson's investigation.
Some successful results of this hard work have been:
- the recently formed West Oxfordshire District Council Environmental Enforcement Team has reduced the number of incidents of fly-tipping by 11.5 per cent and reduced the cost of cleaning this mess up by over 28% in their first year
- Cherwell District Council successfully prosecuted four fly tippers in 2007/08 and issued three formal cautions and over 100 fixed penalty notices to residents committing environmental crimes.
"A cleaner Oxfordshire not only looks good but saves taxpayers' money," Cllr Tanner concludes. "Residents wanting to get involved in tidying up their area should visit www.oxfordshirewaste.gov.uk or call us on 01295 221916."
