ROADSIDE litter: you can’t miss it. It is on every roadside verge. It’s an eyesore, it’s a mess. It threatens wildlife and birds.

Soon the tourists will be arriving.

We tidy our homes up before friends or relatives arrive, because we are proud of our homes. Shouldn’t the same apply to the county of North Yorkshire?

Australia once had one of the worst litter problems in the world until they tackled it in the 1990s.

Now litter free, Australians are justifiably proud of their country.

This country has become a third world country with the amount of litter and other discarded items by the roadside. I don’t believe it’s the lack of cleaning up by cash-strapped county, district or parish councils.

Some may say the Government should put more money into the NHS and education (and rightly so) than litter picking, however the tourism industry delivers a large amount of revenue to the treasury.

Isn’t it time a nationwide Government strategy was applied to the roadside litter problem to ensure our county and country is something we can all be proud of?

There are a lot of volunteers doing a grand job of cleaning up their own neck of the woods. Why should it fall solely to volunteers?

Is the roadside litter problem a solvable problem? I believe what Australia achieved in the 1990s can be applied to this county and country as a whole.

It’s something we should all support, even those who throw their litter away onto roadside verges.

I agree with the sentiment expressed by your correspondent who praised the North Yorkshire County Council refuse collection centre at Sowerby, Thirsk, for being kept spick and span by the helpful staff (D&S Times, Feb 3). Ripon and Northallerton are also excellent facilities with very helpful staff.

Michael Anderson, Ainderby Quernhow, Thirsk.