HAVING just spent a wonderful weekend in Snowdonia enjoying the spectacular Welsh countryside and views it was truly disappointing to see that even here there was so much roadside litter.

The issue of roadside litter is clearly a national problem and is clearly becoming worse. It sends out a totally negative message to both local communities and visitors to the UK.

Local authorities up and down the country and other agencies are spending many thousands of pounds on trying to address this issue when clearly this money could be spent on helping to secure and improve many other more important local services.

Over recent years we have seen issues such as drink-driving and smoking inside buildings become socially unacceptable. It may be that we now focus on dropping of litter in the same way.

As a local councillor I would much prefer to see Wiltshire and Chippenham Town Council spending money on vital services and enhancements to our local communities rather than dealing with constant kerbside litter.

New initiatives and projects like Clean for the Queen and Rubbish Walks are helping to address this, but we need those who continually drop litter in our community to understand that it is totally unacceptable.

COUN PETER J HUTTON

Wiltshire Council and Chippenham Town Council