MY husband and I have just returned from our regular walk round Appleton Reservoir.

We usually pick up litter as we go round in an effort to keep this local beauty spot tidy, but of course the litter always reappears.

This morning, we were appalled to find a huge pile of cans, bottles and food packaging tossed down the bank at the side of the path.

This was at a spot where the grass has been cleared to provide access to the water, and I can imagine that a group of people have chosen this spot to settle down and eat their food and drink.

They must have carried everything in bags, so why did they not carry away the litter in the same bags?

Instead, they decided it was much easier to leave it there.

There is litter all round Appleton Reservoir, in fact litter is everywhere you go.

We recently found a large cardboard box lying on the verge near the canal at Walton Gardens.

On closer inspection it had contained an inflatable dinghy which someone had perhaps taken onto the canal, leaving the empty box by the side of the road.

Shameful.

These days, leaving litter seems to be common practice.

The council hasn’t got the time or the money to address this problem, so it is then left to volunteer groups to go out and clean up after people who think nothing of dropping sweet papers, empty cans and the really annoying one – little plastic bags of dog poo which the owner doesn’t want to carry home.

We need another national campaign to ‘Keep Britain Tidy’.

CHRISTINE PARK Stockton Heath