Reader's Letter: Should the council or the police be acting on this disgusting behaviour?

We walked through the Carrs on thur morning and it was a right mess all over the place, there were bags of rubbish just left next to overflowing bins which in turn had been ripped during the night by the wildlife so there was rubbish everywhere and this was blowing into the river.

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.

Beer and wine bottles explains a lot!

I visited the Carrs this lunchtime and the mess has now all gone, the bins are emptied and the area was clean again.

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

I completely share the anger and total disappointment with other writers. It's sickening that there are people out there who would desecrate the area that they presumably went out to enjoy and be part of.This is sickening in a world craving to protect its precious and fragile environment. I think fortunately there are just a few who would do this, and any amount of talk won't stop them, unless they were made to clear up these areas themselves. It probably needs policing somehow and very heavy fines or community service litter picking, to prevent it. Thankfully the vast majority would respect the public areas we are fortunate to be able to visit around here, and do what's necessary to keep the damage to a minimum. It could do with a serious rethink by our council also,for better provision of waste bins and emptying them.

Sadly there are so many brain dead covidiots that think it’s ‘someone else’s job’ to clear up after them. I take great pleasure in telling them otherwise if caught in the act, I often hope that one embarrassing situation for such a person may make them think twice. Unfortunately it probably comes down to placing some signage around to state that if bins are full to take the rubbish home and for a note on picnic beaches to do the same. It’s sad news when these things aren’t obvious but I guarantee their attitude will be that it’s someone else’s job to clear their rubbish.

I tried walking my dog on The Carrs yesterday. I couldn't let her off the lead because of the people sitting down eating everywhere. I saw one women take her toddler a short distance from her picnic group and then hold it aloft while it did a shit - which she left where it dropped! There are no toilet facilities near Twinnies Bridge despite many of the visitors now staying for a couple of hours of eating and drinking.

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.

Unfortunately, the people wo are causing these litter breaches may not have the literacy skills to read the above or any other notices

I agree wholeheartedly with all the correspondents about the mindless and irresponsible scattering of litter anywhere in the Wilmslow area. If however, you think that the litter dropped in The Carrs area is bad, you might like take a walk along the public footpath that runs behind Wilmslow High School, along the side of the railway and the school playing fields.

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!

If this is a regular occurrence at certain locations the way to catch the offenders is to install temporary [for about say, one week] security cameras. They would obviously be camouflaged and out of sight with recordings sent live to a monitoring station [perhaps manned by local volunteers who would contact the police] so that any offender could be apprehended very soon after leaving the site or tracked down later using a combination of visual identification and mobile phone ID tracking.
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.

It's definitely not just The Carrs, people (other than anglers) have started to congregate for drinking parties etc on the fishing pitches at Rossmere. The rubbish they leave is a disgrace and a danger to wildlife, and it's a shame these lovely places are being spoiled by mindless idiots.

Been following the mass media Chris. "Covidiots" indeed!!!! Made up the the Mail wasn't it?
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..........

There is no point having bins as they simply get full very quickly and there isn`t the resource to empty them, so the problem gets worse.
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 ?

Due to the inability of the Council to empty the public rubbish bins am Iallowed a reduction on my Council Tax. Simon what are purple inbred ones?

Does Wilmslow have 0161 numbers? The mess owners leave behind - always some fresh around on my walk to the shops.The French things that can't breath properly and cost the virtue signallers upwards of a couple of grand to show off.

Is Simon saying that it's the people from Wythenshawe that's leaving litter, I hope not, because many drop it that live in Wilmslow as well.

The last few comments seem to have gone off somewhere unintelligible! I’ve no idea what on earth you are trying to say which could explain that this topic seems to have ground to a halt!

Don’t forget that some people have no gardens to relax in and need to go to nice places like the Carr’s. Would you deny these poor people their simple pleasures. The litter could be because the bins are full. I was once an 0161er and every Thursday Friday and Saturday we had coach loads of sightseers coming to our town. Don’t forget these areas, like the Carrs are for EVERYONE not just the privileged 01625 ers.

I am concerned that David Smith might be losing his marbles!? Camouflaged cameras !!!
You will be suggesting to send in the TA next to get rid of Simons 0161ers .

Mmmmmmmm. David, seems a bit extreme. Wouldn’t it be cheaper to simply install an extra bin. Yes Andrew, marbles I think