Education is solution to littering

Jun 17 2009 by Lorna Hughes, Birkenhead News

YOUR article about the appalling amount of litter left by visitors to West Kirby beach highlights what is becoming an increasing blight in many urban and rural areas throughout the country.

The dominance of the fast food culture has led to a change in people’s attitudes and behaviour where both adults and children now drop their used cans, bottles, wrappers and cartons wherever they please, or fling it out of their car windows, turning the roads and verges into rubbish dumps.

The indifference of these thoughtless morons is only matched by the apathy of many people who will happily sit and stare at rubbish discarded right outside their own houses waiting for someone else to deal with it.

Dropping litter must be made as socially unacceptable as dog fouling has thankfully become.

Issuing spot fines may help to ease the problem but educating people to take responsibility for their actions is the only real solution.

JONATHAN WRIGHT

Barnston

Plans change

THIS letter is to let people know how the rules have changed regarding boundaries between properties.

I now have a two-storey and single rear extension very close to my boundary wall.

So close that any maintenance to the extended wall could only be done by access to my land.

There is now no access to the back of the extended property other than the front door, which at one time would not have been allowed for fire regulations.

So please be warned to examine planning applications very carefully. I wish I had.

MAVIS BROWN

Heswall

Voter pride

IN 1997 I, like many others, voted for Tony Blair & co.

I felt that the Major administration was riven by sleaze and in-fighting.

It was directionless, exhausted and incompetent.

Sometime in the next 11 months I will be voting for Leah Fraser for exactly the same reasons.

However, I do feel that everyone in Wirral should feel proud that one of our constituencies consistently returns Frank Field to Parliament.

Frank's intelligence, insight, quiet rational eloquence and scrupulous integrity are without peer.

If we had 600 other MPs of Frank's calibre then Britain would be a much better place.

PHIL DOLMAN

Wallasey

Gender matters

WITH regard to the article “Three girls charged over late-night fight” (June 3).

The first sentence of this article describes three young girls and a 20-year-old man appearing before magistrates in Birkenhead.

The article then goes on to give the ages of the ‘girls’ – 23, 22 and 18-years old.

I have no wish to condone the behaviour outlined in the article but how come the females are described as ‘girls’ yet the male is a ‘man’ – and this is despite being younger than two of his accomplices?

These are not 'girls' who have been in a late-night fight. They are women, and should be described as such.

Use of language in this way infantilises women unnecessarily and undermines all the hard-won achievements in society to ensure equality.

JANET FLEXNEY

via e-mail

Nothing to see

I LOVE Wirral too but wasn’t born here and perhaps my glasses are less rose-tinted.

Say visitors from France, Germany, America or Australia cross its borders – what do they find?

Vandalism. Paper-strewn roads. Villages semi-deserted. Once thriving shops shut down.

Come to Rock Ferry and you can see the once resplendent Rock Park, the state of the esplanade and the shopping trolley floating for months in the Mersey.

Go to New Brighton – what is there for families or visitors? The Floral Pavilion, fruit machines and a hideous clown.

It is a joy to walk through Port Sunlight. It is clean and tidy, the gardens are well-kept and it boasts two nice cafes.

If this kind of approach was taken right across the peninsula, then we would surely get a place in Lonely Planet’s Great Britain guide.

Is it possible to teach our youngsters to take pride in it?

And for the council to regularly empty overflowing bins in public places?

A good example always comes from the top.

MRS E M KEMP

Rock Ferry

No to Hilbre

YOUR article in the News about the Lonely Planet guide (May 27) suggested Hilbre should be included.

NO! First, the islands are tidal and the tides are very dangerous unless you know the details (obtainable from Wirral Country Park, 648 4371).

Second, they are a nature reserve, which is open to the public but not in hordes, as wildlife could suffer from trampling. Third, there is no drinking water or shelter on the islands.

My suggestions for Lonely Planet: West Kirby old village, Brimstage, Lower Heswall, also Birkenhead Park and Williamson Art Gallery and Museum – a short walk away along Slatey Road.

SUSAN CRAGGS

Neston

Take more care

IT IS tragic that a cyclist caused Liberty Dempsey (Wirral News, June 10) such injuries.

I regularly cycle the promenade between Seacombe and New Brighton. Councillor Taylor is right to say that cyclists need to pay attention to pedestrians, but omits to say that pedestrians need to pay more attention to cyclists.

Between Seacombe Ferry and the small roundabout at the end of Egerton Street there is a designated cycle path painted with white lines and cycle symbols.

However, some markings are in poor condition and huge numbers of pedestrians and dog walkers, whom I continually have to avoid by cycling out of the cycle lane, are oblivious to them.

The designated lane needs to be much better marked.

There is no designated cycle lane along Tower and Marine Promenade and cyclists have to, legally, use the road.

But Marine Promenade, where cars are parked on the road, and have to reverse out of their bays, is death valley for cyclists, many of whom ride on the pavement to avoid injury. Š

Clearly something needs to be done and Councillor Hayes as a member of Wirral Cycle Forum, needs to be looking at this urgently before someone else is injured, or worse.

DAVE PEDDIE

Birkenhead

Bus confusion

JUST had to comment on “Ticket to Ride” (Letters, June 2) and the fuss over the tickets being issued to pensioners.

It is very confusing as the tickets are being issued “willy nilly”.

On one journey there was even a very polite notice “Sorry ticket not available”.

Please decide, are we to take a ticket on boarding the bus or not?

P KIRBY

Wallasey