FIRSTLY, thanks and congratulations to the Anti Litter Group for organising a well-supported event in Evesham.

It was 2015 when, after many local people had done much work, that the Town Plan for Evesham was signed off.

I will remind everyone reading that at that time one of the key changes that Evesham residents wished to see improved was cleanliness in the town centre — this a result of a perceived littered environment.

The town plan was signed off by the town council and acknowledged but not signed off by Wychavon District Council, the authority that holds the budget for the local street environment, and indeed that of the wider Wychavon district.

As a result a litter group was formed very quickly after the sign-off and became effective from the start of 2016.

It had no authority and the remit was limited to organising litter picking events and these were frequent. They continue to be so, right up until present.

The group was effective in identifying areas of the town that were badly littered and bringing these to the attention of WDC and ETC in regular formal reports.

There was also a study of the bins in the town. As a result, bins were relocated and some new bins were added.

There was detailed work to try to put the right size of bin in the right place.

The Adopt a Street initiative was a result of the work of the group.

Many local people became actively involved as evidence of their commitment and verification of the measured response to the town plan questionnaire.

Much else was done, documented and reported. The people of the town committed.

Recently, the mayor defended the town in the press, pointing out the beauty and attractiveness of Evesham.

He was correct, if you limit those remarks to geography and architecture.

Many others were trying to say that the standards of cleanliness and orderliness in the town were not high enough.

This was defended again by comparing Evesham with many other towns in the UK which also struggle with town centres in need of improvement.

This may be correct but is it good to defend something that is a problem by comparing it to similarly-blighted places?

Because of my involvement in 2015 and before for five years and my review of the town since I would say that we are in no better a place than we were in 2015.

For all the work done by volunteers nothing has been sustained.

To be sustained the work has to be fully supported by the authorities, WDC and the police.

The need to deliver education programmes and make prosecutions, when necessary, in addition to the work being done picking up the litter.

Only an authority can deliver these acts.

Successful campaigns around the world include such backing.

You may say, haven’t we got many other priorities?

I would respond saying that the evidence is we are struggling with the easy problems. If we can’t improve in these areas how will we tackle the bigger issues facing society?

You may say that there is not the budget.

I argue that reduced littering would remove cost from the budget, that littering has no added value, it is a pure cost and the budget expended today is wasted unless underpinned by a programme of continuous improvement that reduces the amount of littering.

Bruce Taylor

Evesham