I just wanted to share what I have just seen on my evening dog walk in the Carrs. I experienced the same yesterday but was hoping it was a one off, but obviously not. My husband came across a very kind local man this morning who was clearing up yesterday's mess, then by this evening we find more of the same. This is a disgrace and inexcusable!
It is great that people want to meet up and picnic in these beautiful surroundings, but the Carrs will not stay beautiful for much longer if these selfish people continue to leave their rubbish.
I am struggling for words to express how angry this makes me feel, and I am sure the same can be said for the rest of our community.
As we are now approaching the summer, and with so many people not at school or work, this is certainly an area that requires some immediate attention from our local council and police if we are to eliminate such disgraceful behaviour.
Comments
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I'm not quite sure why it's such a difficult thing to do to take home your own rubbish after people brought it into the park in the first place, if the bin is full please take it home or find a bin which isn't but just dumping it near the nearest full bin is not going to help.
The picnic tables by the first bridge were left with empty beer and wine bottles and rubbish all over that area, I assume there is special dispensation if you are using the picnic tables then you can just leave that for some other mug rather than make any attempt to clean it up.
Cheshire East has moved staff from maintaining parks to working on the bin lorries so that your household refuse collections still take place. Therefore, there are fewer staff to keep the parks tidy, so please do your bit by clearing the park tables of your litter and taking it home with you if the bins are full.
The mess that was left behind on Thursday and Friday is totally unacceptable, so please use your common sense to keep it pleasant for everyone else.
Cllr Mark Goldsmith
Wilmslow West & Chorley
Lots of the current visitors to The Carrs are travelling from outside of Wilmslow to do this - you can see they are bringing BBQ's, blankets & toys in their cars and setting up picnics within 200 metres of the car parks. They are not travelling to The Carrs to exercise or appreciate the wildlife and countryside. I suspect the majority of local people walking into the park do not go there to sit down or eat.
I appreciate we live in a lovely place but it is no longer pleasant when it is covered in litter, the birdsong is drowned out by children and attention has to be completely focused on avoiding other people. Many of the visitors are not socially distancing - The largest group I saw consisted of 9 adult women & their associated children, all closely gathered around one tent. I passed another group of 8 on the 90cm wide boardwalk through Styal Woods. It is impossible to safely pass such large groups of people either on the narrow paths or avoiding their ranging ball games.
The cyclists and joggers have been pushed further into the woodland paths. There are now family groups cycling round Lindow Common (despite the no cycling signs). This is making it impossible to walk anywhere and maintain a distance of 2m.
The virus is causing a generational rift. The under 50's who are unafraid of the virus and are impatient to get back to normal. They are bored stuck at home and are desperate to meet up with friends and The Carrs is a perfect place for them to do this (with no police or wardens to challenge behaviour). Meanwhile the over 50's (who previously appeared to be the main users of these public spaces) are still very wary of the virus and are becoming increasingly afraid to leave their homes. Especially as some of the younger people they see outdoors are so obviously not observing the lockdown. Many of the regular dog walkers no longer feel safe to walk their dogs on their usual routes. There also seem to be a lot of people walking dogs for others and I suspect this is why there is so much more dog pooh being left instead of picked up.
The national trust is reopening carefully - they intend to use a booking system for their carparks so they can control the number of visitors to avoid overcrowding. We really need something like this for our public spaces too. I don't want to stop anyone from visiting but when everyone turns up together (and behaves how they want) then it becomes detrimental to the area. The council are working hard to empty the bins and are doing additional litter picks but they also need to be installing portaloos and notices asking people to take their litter home if possible.
Ultimately we need some political leadership. Is it time to start talking about age based time slots in public parks? Should the car parks really have been reopened? If anything drives home the uselessness of the 'be alert' message it is the fraught state of our public spaces through which we are all trying to navigate on a daily basis.
I couldn't believe it when on "walkabout" during lock-down and saw the mess - perhaps the schoolchildren might be made to clear it all up - it's their litter!
Any such equipment could be relocated to other sites of regular littering to catch those who think it is an ok habit and not a social nuisance.
If anyone says that this might infringe some civil liberty or human right then they can be assigned to clean up all such examples of mess for the next 5 years!
Councillors please note: this is the sort of good use on which we expect you to spend our council tax.
This is a perennial problem (not a virus problem) and the lack of bins doesn't help. They would be ravaged by the flying rats and other vermin over night anyway. Perhaps a large wheely bin in the car park would help over the summer, after all who wants their old banger stinking even worse on the way back to 0161 land.
Given the masses have been "locked down" for a couple of months and the sun shines and our children are paying their wages whilst they have lounged around at home it is hardly a surprise that the plebs leave their mess. Probably a large contingent of snowflake climate change believers involved along with the ignorant and selfish. All of whom believe in "out of sight out of (tiny) mind".
As for the school kids - the attention span ends once the food container is empty and the hand muscles relax to drop the item. Apologies to those few kids who do care and don't worship the Swedish schoolgirl truant. Don't get me started on the selfish dog owners and especially ones with the purple inbred ones..........
The " Edge " does not have a litter issue and there are no bins there .
As a voluntary "litter picker " if we all picked up litter as we went along i am sure this would help eradicate the problem and create awareness to others that leave it over time...So lets all do our community bit and embarrass those that don`t.
Simon my number starts 0161 and how do i get you started on the selfish dog owners especially ones with the purple inbred ones..........? I don`t understand that ?
You will be suggesting to send in the TA next to get rid of Simons 0161ers .