A SHOCKING IMAGE depicts the blatant littering by motorists on a motorway slip-road despite a sign warning of fines up to £2,500 for those who litter the area.
The photo was taken by a HGV Driver on the junction 3 off-slip of the M66 in Bury in Greater Manchester on Wednesday February 10.
Matthew Hill later posted the photo on social media and wrote: “If there was a camera on this junction off the M66 Bury council would make a fortune.”
Many users were quick blame HGV Drivers, suggesting they dispose of their rubbish before going to nearby distribution centre, and others blamed vehicles carrying rubbish to landfill site.
Chris Brown replied: “Sad fact of this picture is the majority of right turners are HGV drivers, going to Heywood distribution park.”
Nikolas Fountain commented: “It seems to just get more and more every time I come down that slip road.”
Chris Scott added: “Saw that yesterday in person. I was howling. It’s crap that it’s happening. But the irony.”
Speaking today Matthew, 39, said: “I noticed the amount of litter that had been discarded at the bottom of the slip road right next to a sign warning of a potential fine for discarding waste.
“I personally bag all my rubbish up for the week, keep it in the cab then take it home.
“In my opinion this is absolutely disgusting and potentially very embarrassing for the local authority.”
When contacted Bury Council deflected responsibility for the problem onto Highway’s England, however only the local authority and the police have the powers of prosecution.
A spokesman for Highways England’s said: “Our contractors regularly clear litter from the motorway network but the simple fact is that if litter wasn’t dropped in the first place it wouldn’t need to be picked up.
“Litter is not only unsightly and a risk to wildlife and the environment, but it also puts our workers at risk collecting it and it diverts time and money that could be better spent on improving the network.
“As well as inspecting the network routinely and running regular litter-picking operations, Highways England also supports initiatives such as the Great British Clean arranging extra litter picks to coincide with the campaign and by urging people to take their litter home.”
There currently isn’t any plans to install a camera to catch offenders so it’s unlikely the problem will go away anytime soon.
