SIR, For a change and with no other commitments this year, my wife and I decided to have a short walk and a picnic in the hills for our Christmas Day lunch. We decided to visit Swinside stone circle and then to have our lunch by the side of the River Duddon.

As you and very many of your readers will know, this area of South Lakeland is one of the most beautiful, quiet and remote areas of Cumbria. You can, therefore, only begin to imagine our incredulity and disgust at the amount of litter we encountered along our relatively short journey.

We live in Grange-over-Sands and are members of the Keep Grange Tidy' group which, although only formed earlier this year, has staged numerous public litter picks in the town and its environs, with the help of many individuals and other organisations. During these events, we have been astounded by the amount of litter continuously and carelessly dropped by the public at large in the local area. Therefore, it might be argued we should not be surprised to encounter so much litter adorning the countryside further afield.

However, I find it sad in the extreme that people who are prepared to travel to some of the most lovely areas in the country, in order to enjoy the beauty of their surroundings, can wish to pollute that very beauty with such generous abandon and careless concern for the safety of wildlife, farm animals and the environment.

It could be argued also, that the clearance of this litter is the duty of the councils to whom we pay our taxes and, to an extent, I agree but those same councils cannot afford to keep public toilets open, an extremely necessary facility, let alone afford to pay individual employees to hand-pick miles upon miles of remote lanes and footpaths.

It has to be the responsibility of every single person man, woman and child to dispose of their litter is a responsible manner and that means take it home with you!

The bulk of the litter we noticed composed of drink cans and bottles, plastic food boxes and bags, sweet and sandwich wrappers. They were brought into the area by someone and should be taken home again by the same person.

Much of the litter is deliberately poked into stone walls or hedges, under the misguided impression that if it cannot be seen, it doesn't matter. But it does matter and it can be seen, especially in winter.

Also, while National Trust Volunteers do a grand job throughout the year helping to clear litter, amongst all their other tasks, they cannot be expected to cope with the vast quantities of litter left by visitors and (it has to be said) some residents too.

As it happened, our Christmas picnic lunch was not as enjoyable as we had anticipated because of the carelessness of others.

Please, please, help to ensure that the countryside that you come here to enjoy, is left as you would wish to find it beautiful and litter-free.

Terence A. Bailey-Pullen

Grange-Over-Sands

January 3, 2003 12:30