Stop the drop
Above: Bill Bryson with litter on the Pilgrims' Way (Kent Life Magazine)
Above: Bill Bryson, president of CPRE (Kent Life Magazine)
Above: Bill Bryson, president of CPRE doing his bit for the Kent countryside (Kent Life Magazine)
Earlier this summer, through intermittent drizzle, 30 volunteers in high-visibility vests moved along the Pilgrims Way in east Kent, pausing repeatedly to peck, with their grabbers, various sodden items out of hedges and into black refuse sacks.
Little by little these bags filled with the ubiquitous detritus of the English rural roadside – aluminium cans, crisp packets, cigarette ends and supermarket bags.
Tireless campaigner
At the head of the procession walked the American author Bill Bryson, who has worked tirelessly since April to let the English know that their incomparably lovely countryside is being pointlessly degraded by litter and flytipping.
“You have this amazing countryside here, but it's getting trashed by litter,” he said. “Wherever you travel in rural England, for virtually the whole journey litter is a conspicuous presence – fluttering in every hedgerow, piled in every lay-by.
“Litter is becoming the default condition of the countryside, and it is time all of us did something about this – the landscape of England is too lovely to trash.”
When Bill Bryson agreed, to the delight of members, to become national president of the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) last year, he announced that reversing the rising tide of rural litter, which has increased by 500 per cent in the last four decades, would be his first priority.
Litter is becoming the default condition of the countryside
In April this year, CPRE launched a three-year, nationwide campaign called Stop the Drop, which aims, in Bill’s words, “to make our countryside what it was almost everywhere until very recently and what most of us still want it to be – a place of cherished beauty and sometimes utter perfection.”
As part of Stop the Drop, the Kent branch of CPRE decided to run an event of its own, in partnership with the KCC organisation, Clean Kent.
A five-mile litter pick along the Pilgrims Way, starting from the iconic Devil's Kneading Trough above Wye and ending at the village of Stowting, would demonstrate how much our most treasured landscapes were being spoilt by the pointless act of illegally dumping rubbish; and we invited our president to come along for the day.
On the morning of 28 May, standing on the edge of the North Downs and looking out over the wonder of the Weald, Bill Bryson told journalists: “Litter is simply an insult to this glorious countryside – it is the visual manifestation of laziness. And everyone needs to realise how bad the problem is – then perhaps everyone will do something to sort it out.”
His comments were echoed by Dr Hilary Newport, director of CPRE Kent. “This is one of the best known places in rural Kent, with thousands drawn here every year by its natural beauty and the sensational views it offers across the Weald and Romney Marsh,” she said.
Legacy of litter
“And yet so many who come here feel they have to leave a legacy of litter behind. Bottles, cans, cartons and bags collect here every day, and sorting it out is a massive headache to the local authorities.”
Ashford Borough Council cannot be accused of ignoring litter. The council estimates that 125 tons are collected across the borough every year, an operation which costs council tax payers more than a million pounds. And CPRE believes the nationwide bill for litter and flytipping is as much as a billion pounds per year.
The litter picking group set off down the side of the Devil's Kneading Trough on its five-mile clean-up, passing through a nature reserve which looked spotless at first glance, but which soon began to yield plastic bottles, beer cans and a car bonnet which had been used as a sledge.
The Pilgrims Way, which the litter pick followed from the bottom of the hill, also offered up an astonishing quantity of illegally dumped rubbish. The group pulled a flytipped garden fence from the hedge here, a bag of cement and a Frisbee there, and continuously gathered bagsful of the usual suspects – cans of caffeinated soft drinks and Australian lager.
The landscape of England is too lovely to trash
By the time the procession was approaching its end at Stowting the lorry had accumulated a massive quantity of rubbish.
It was satisfying, at the end of the litter pick, to think that five miles at least of rural Kent’s pathways and rural roads were completely free of litter and flytipped waste, the hedgerows solely the domain of plants and animals once again.
But as we drove back along the Pilgrims Way from the end of the litter pick, we passed a motorist going the other way, happily munching on a sandwich. Round the next bend, in the middle of the road, its clear plastic lid flapping gaily in the wind, was the sandwich container, the first item to besmirch the spotless road.
Unless attitudes change, unless all of us accept that throwing rubbish out of cars is a rotten way to treat our uniquely wonderful countryside, the cycle will be repeated again and again: a constant stream of refuse settling on rural Kent and blighting its loveliest places; a relentless battle by local authorities to clean it up; and the occasional impassioned plea from someone like Bill Bryson to end, once and for all, this pointless vandalism of our natural environment.
CPRE's president, having seen a little of what rural Kent has to offer, said he wanted to return to walk some walk some more of the Pilgrims Way and South Downs Way. Let’s hope that when he does, for his sake and for the rest of us, there is a little less litter marring our beautiful countryside.