Councillors demand action over litter thrown out of cars onto Milton Keynes grid roads

They say the council should do more to pick up the debris that litter lout drivers hurl out of their windows.

The Conservatives have today pledged to increase grid road litter picks if they take control of MK Council in May’s local elections.

A spokesman said: “Litter takes a devastating toll on the environment and costs around £1 billion every year to clean up. It also poses a serious safety risk as road verges and barriers form corridors where litter and debris build up at an alarming rate, creating a hazardous environment for road users, wildlife and the maintenance crews who clean it up.”

Recently, Tattenhoe’s community champion, Shazna Muzammil and Cllr James Lancaster, have been tackling grid road verge littering but they agree that more must be done on a council level to deal with the problem.

Cllr Alex Walker, Leader of the Conservative Group, said: “Littering is a huge problem in Milton Keynes and especially on grid road verges. Litter dropped along roads is dangerous and a hazard to car drives and cyclists.

“The simple fact is that if litter wasn’t dropped in the first place it wouldn’t need to be picked up.

“But with the serious amount of litter we’re seeing, action does need to be taken and we will invest in additional grid road litter picks to show MK some serious TLC if we take control in May’s local elections.”

Shazna said: “Grid roads are what visitors see most and at the moment the litter is leaving a bad impression.

“We’ve been litter-picking the grid road verges and the amount of litter left by people is awful. We need to keep our communities safe and well maintained and that means increasing the number of litter picks but also educating drivers.

“The message is simple, leave your litter in your car and put it in your bin when you get home so our roads are clean.”

All council owned public land is scheduled be cleaned on at least an eight-weekly basis. Some areas will be visited more frequently, especially around schools, shops and areas of high footfall.