A LITTER picker who regularly collects rubbish from in and around a Cumbrian river has described the problem as an ‘ongoing nightmare’.

Simon Raven, from Endmoor, is a keen cyclist and canoeist who enjoys spending his spare time in the outdoors having retired after working at Heysham power station.

However, one of the 63-year-old's pet peeves is people littering, in particular in the River Kent.

Just this week, Simon found his usual haul of plastic bottles, sweet wrappers, metal cans, crisps and vapes from a small area around Stramongate Bridge and Miller Bridge.

He also located three traffic cones, an umbrella, part of an office chair and a whopping 46 golf balls.

(Image: Rubbish recovered from the River Kent. Credit: Simon Raven)

(Image: Rubbish recovered from the River Kent. Credit: Simon Raven) (Image: Rubbish recovered from the River Kent. Credit: Simon Raven)“It’s shocking what you can find in the river when you go looking for it,” Simon said.

“I’ve never gone to the river to do a clean and come away with nothing.

“Littering in the town centre is bad but at least people can hopefully clean it up, whereas the river doesn’t ever get cleaned so I just try and do my little bit.”

This is not a one-off occurrence for Simon. Last year we reported the news that he had recovered at least 25 bikes over the last two years from a section of the River Kent.

READ MORE: Cumbria man recovered at least 25 bikes discarded in the River Kent with many stolen

He fears the rubbish is having a detrimental impact environmentally on the wildlife in the river and that the problem is ‘only going to get worse’.

Simon added: “We’ve got swans, otters, and a wide variety of fish including crayfish in the River Kent but nothing ever gets done to help protect the animals with the litter.

"It’s an ongoing nightmare with all of the pop bottles and tin cans as everything is mostly all plastic.

“The problem has definitely got worse over the years. I think it’s because too many people just don’t give a damn anymore.

"Dog fouling is considered to be an environmental menace and it seems to be more socially unacceptable than littering, which nobody challenges.

"Also, too many people get away with it. I watch people drop litter and there is no local authority in place to impose fixed penalty notices. It’s just become something in our culture which we seem to have accepted.

READ MORE: Regular litter picker of Cumbrian river 'never seen so many bottles and vapes

“In Japan they don’t have a litter problem. Tokyo is spotless. People just take their rubbish away with them, they don’t just drop it on the floor. In this country, we just think it’s acceptable to leave for somebody else to clean up.

“I used to get angry about it, but now I’m resigned to the fact that nothing is going to change, I’ll just keep doing my own little bit. It would be nice if others wanted to join me.”