Fed up with roadside rubbish
HE'S seen some pretty grubby areas in his 75 years but South Grafton resident Col Brown reckons parts of Rushforth Rd take the discarded cake wrapper for the amount of roadside litter.
Mr Brown - who lives in the area and drives the road each day - said while many parts of the city were kept spotless, the relatively short stretch of Rushforth Rd between the soccer fields and Bimble Ave was constantly lined with rubbish, shopping trolleys and even the occasional mattress.
"It's a real disgrace - it's actually quite depressing for the people who live in the area," Mr Brown said.
"One day I counted eight shopping trolleys that had been dumped along there over a weekend."
Living most of his life in Western NSW, Mr Brown said he'd thought he'd seen some of the worst examples of roadside litter - until he moved to South Grafton about three years ago.
But he said despite frequent complaints to the council about it, he said it was rarely cleaned-up.
He said the last time he could recall a clean-up of the area was in February this year.
Clarence Valley Council manager of environment and open spaces Peter Birch said there were a number of litter "hot spots" in the Grafton area and said dealing with both the cause and effects of the problem was a constant battle.
"We certainly have areas out there where we're having to pick up litter on a fairly regular basis," Mr Birch said.
"There are all sorts of reasons why we have litter and bottles being thrown out of cars, that kind of thing - it's a multi-faceted issue dealing with litter and there isn't just one simple solution."
Mr Birch said he would look into the Rushforth Rd situation and said the council would be monitoring the area closely.
However, Mr Birch said while council crews regularly picked up litter on public land as part of their jobs, it was also up to residents to take the initiative and work with the council to help keep their neighbourhoods litter-free.
