The litter vigilantes working to make Britain clean and pleasant once more

AN army is fighting an enemy that hides in plain sight and grows bigger by the day.

- By Giles Sheldrick Chief Reporter

The battle against litter operates in the highways and byways, hedgerows and hills of this once green and pleasant land.

In many ways it is a very British war, with a battalion of black bin bag carriers assembled from those who still passionately care about what this country looks like, both to them and other people.

Although the fight is primarily against rubbish, it is also against a lack of council action.

And according to John Read, founder of Clean Up Britain, the crisis is a symptom of almost everything that is wrong with this country: officialdom has simply given up.

He said: “We are fighting a litter epidemic.

“It’s lawless and, not to put too fine a point on it, large parts of Britain look like a squalid dump.

“There is virtually zero enforcement and the sad reality is it seems as if no one cares. Frankly, it’s embarrassing.”

Clean Up Britain wants to end the cycle of environmental neglect by challenging inaction, demanding accountability and inspiring a culture of personal and collective responsibility. It is proving an uphill battle, so a fighting force has been mobilised.

It was set up to tackle the root causes of an epidemic that is worsening what it sees as weak enforcement, poor infrastructure and a lack of political will.

And while the group lobbies powerbrokers in Westminster, out in the shires a conflict is raging.

As it pushes for meaningful change its army of volunteers wage war in hedgerows and country lanes doing jobs it appears cash-strapped local authorities can no longer be bothered to undertake.