Davies slams ‘dirty pig’ litter louts

Chris Davies with the litter he collected along the A635 Isle of Skye road

Oldham Euro-MP Chris Davies has branded people who throw litter from their cars as dirty pigs — after picking up their rubbish.

The Lib-Dem representative took a hands-on approach to litter louts when he scooped up rubbish hurled from passing vehicles on the A635 Greenfield to Holmfirth road near Dovestone Reservoir.

In an hour, Chris collected sackfuls of rubbish from the verge of the moorland stretch of road.

The politician expressed his disgust at the behaviour of the drivers and their passengers as he called for people not to blight the countryside.

He said: “Once out of sight of passers-by some car users seem to lose all inhibitions. Maybe these people would have trouble using the lavatory in their own homes, or maybe they just don’t care a damn for the countryside and the environment.

“To call them filthy, dirty pigs is an insult to pigs! Is it really so difficult for civilised people to keep hold of their litter until they can find a bin in which to put it?”

Mr Davies points out that plastic and glass bottles never degrade, while it can take up to 100 years for aluminium cans to disappear, up to 20 years for plastic bags, and even orange peel and banana skins can take two years to rot away.

A recent poll of motorists carried out by www.motorinsurance.co.uk found two out of five drivers questioned admitted throwing litter from the car window and one in six said they emptied their ashtray on to the road or verge.

The amount of litter dropped yearly in the UK has increased by 500 per cent since the 1960s and clearing up litter and fly-tipping costs over £600 million each year.

Around 1.3 million pieces of rubbish are dropped on Highway Agency roads alone every weekend and over a year.

According to the government the number of on-the-spot fines and prosecutions have increased. Last year there were 700 court cases and 17,000 £80 fines — a 30 per cent increase on 2006.

The Campaign to Protect Rural England has launched a three-year Stop the Drop campaign to clean up the country. Resources to organise a litter pick can be found on the organisation’s website www.cpre.org.uk.