Why all the Rubbish? 8 Why all the Rubbish?

On our morning amble down the high street Mojo, the Shepperton Matters dog and I often meet Jean Davies and her trolley of rubbish bags. We will all recognise this smiley face. Jean walks the length and breadth of Shepperton every day from Sheep Walk to Gaston Bridge Road and Dockett Eddy Lane to Green Lane and everywhere in between, picking up rubbish and sweeping the pavement to make Shepperton look its best, the place we love. She does it with good humour, even during the recent heat wave, and loves her job. What an amazing lady!

But what is also amazing is the amount of rubbish being dumped by those who don’t seem to care for our village! Jean has noticed an increase in rubbish this year. Do people not care? Smashed bottles litter the pavements almost daily, making it hazardous for dogs. Cans, wrappers, food boxes galore. There are plenty of bins in Shepperton so why leave rubbish for someone else? Is this a matter of education? Is it the youngsters who have not been told that it is NOT ok to litter, even if there is a litter angel in the form of Jean? I think in fact it is down to older

Food waste litters the ground and wrapping on a bench and the bin is THERE! and younger alike. I can only think it is laziness. So come on, lets see if we can all do our little bit and keep Shepperton looking lovely, a place we all like to walk around and be proud of. As always, if we all do our little bit, we will all benefit. But if we all have the attitude “my little wrapper is not a big deal” we will carry on drowning in rubbish.

One local has taken matters into his own hands. He makes it his mission to do a walk and litter pick most days “On a walk along Black Ditch, through the lakes and back along the Towpath and up Ferry Lane I collected two full heavy duty bags of all kinds of litter - this despite other people and the Streetscene folks doing the same. I have also walked along the Towpath and Dumsey Meadows to Chertsey bridge. I could hardly lift the heavy duty black bag by the time I was half way round Dumsey Meadows and still could have half filled another.”