Protecting and promoting Wheathampstead December 2020 Wandering for “We’re talking garbage!” Wheathampstead Well litter to be precise! Nobody likes it, so why do so many people do it? WDPS is this Christmas launching a fun trail through the centre of Wheathamp- stead that will keep the whole family en- tertained. The route can be easily followed. A range of fascinating questions introduce you to a mixture of points on the Heritage Trail, some of the businesses and other organisa- tions that thrive in the village and other A growing band of litter picking enthusiasts are devoted to reversing the interesting features that you might not otherwise notice. trend in Wheathampstead. We’re calling them the Wheathampstead Wom- A parallel series bles. You may have spotted them in their “Don’t Mess with Wheathamp- of questions has stead” hi-viz vests, you might have joined one of our coordinated litter pick been designed events or maybe you’re following our Facebook Page of the same name. Even for children. It better would be if you noticed that the village is looking cleaner than before. follows the same route and Why is now the right time to “People are using my can be done at tackle litter? the same time. Coronavirus has made litter worse. street like a rubbish Wandering for With all the PPE being used nowa- dump…Litteralley” Wheathamp- days, a lot of it ends up in the gutter. stead would be Sadly, people are no longer just discarding takeaway packaging on our road a great way to spend some verges, they are also dropping facemasks, disposable gloves, wet wipes and time over the Christmas and New Year tissues. period, but it can be followed whenever you like. And from time to time we shall refresh the questions and the route so you can follow it anew. Prize Draw Copies of the Wandering for Wheathamp- stead directions and question sheet cost £8. The proceeds will go to the Chapel Gym project. To get your copy, just visit www.wheathampsteadpreservation.org.uk and follow the instructions. You can then follow the route, fill in the question sheet and send it back to us. (Details of where to send it are on the question For as long as anyone can remember there have been people who, whenever sheet). they saw litter in the street (a crisp packet, say, or a sweetie wrapper) they When we have received 12 correct en- would pick it up without thinking and pop it in a nearby bin. But they’re not tries, we shall hold a prize draw, and we doing this now due to the fear surrounding Coronavirus. shall do so again after each batch of 12 So, it’s a double whammy of more litter coupled with less ad-hoc litter pick- correct entries. One of the 12 people will then win vouchers to the tune of £20 to ing. spend at local businesses. Cont’d on p.2 Email: [email protected] Page 1 www.wheathampsteadpreservation.org.uk Wheathampstead and District Preservation Society December 2020 Isn’t it the Council’s job? These style of ring pulls were replaced by the stay-on tab from 1975 onwards meaning this piece of litter had Yes and no. been on Pipers Lane for several decades! If you have Yes, because there are contracts in place for litter pick- ever watched the BBC series, The Detectorists, you’ll ing at Parish and District Council. A local contractor understand why we got so excited by this find. undertakes litter picking and bin emptying on land As time goes on and with more people volunteering to owned/managed by the Parish Council and a different litter pick, WDPS think that we are on the verge of a contractor (a national company) undertakes litter pick- breakthrough in Wheathampstead’s Litter. The day ing and bin emptying around the areas managed by the when we can say there is no historic or vintage litter District Council, such as the High St. anywhere in the parish!?! No, because neither Parish nor District Council are re- Imagine the effects of having no old litter sponsible for litter picking on any of the footpaths around the parish, so it is up to volunteers to help Keep Firstly, we know that “litter breeds litter” so an Wheathampstead Wonderful. absence of litter can have the opposite effect and will actually deter some people from dropping You started off talking garbage but now you litter in the first place really are talking crap!?! Secondly, the council contractors should find less When you go walking in the country you have probably to litter pick and this will be balanced by fuller seen deposits like these: litter bins (bins may need to be emptied more fre -quently because after all, where’s all that litter going?) Thirdly, it will be easier for our volunteers to & find and remove new litter (no more digging deep into the undergrowth) And finally, if everyone in Wheathampstead agrees that we’re going to stare at the person standing nearest to a piece of fresh litter, they’re But which of those two deposits offends you the most probably going to want to pick it up (please assume that in both cases they are at the side of a country footpath where you are unlikely to step on it Why should I and is far away from where children could be playing)? volunteer? Dog poo is a natural product and will decompose within 7 days but the plastic bags (even the biodegradable ones) Lots of people are getting take at least 10 years and in some cases can take up to on board and joining a 500 years! growing team of volun- teers picking up litter So, if you’re in the countryside and if you’re not going to across the area. take your dog poo home with you then please don’t Litter picking is fun and wrap it up in a bag and tie it in a bow. Just kick it to the rewarding when you weigh up the feel good benefits side and let nature do what nature is good at. against the minor inconvenience it causes. Bothering to Will we ever get rid of all the ancient historic carry a bag and a litter picker (or pair of gloves) when Litter? you go out walking is more than made up for by the We know that a lot of lit- sense of pride and public spiritedness. ter has been lying there for many years, maybe dec- What’s all the fuss about the Litterati App? ades. One of our volun- teers recently got overly Many of our volunteers have become addicted to using excited to find a vintage a smart phone App called Litterati. Developed in Cali- ring pull (like the one in fornia, it is a worldwide App to capture an image of the photograph). Cont’d on p. 3 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wdpss/ Page 2 www.wheathampsteadpreservation.org.uk Wheathampstead and District Preservation Society December 2020 every piece of litter which then gets automati- Luton Airport consultations cally geotagged and categorized to provide a statistical analysis of litter collected and trends. If you haven’t got enough to Our top two Litterati contributors (other vol- engage your unteers might be picking more litter but as mind at this mo- there’s no data then we don’t know ) are Jan ment in time Knights and Iain Begg. Both are retired and are and you really keen walkers so they have decided to turn eve- want a real brain teaser then fath- ry walk into a Litter pick and they’ve got quite om this one out. competitive about their relative position in our Luton Airport Wheathampstead challenges and also their has been weep- world rankings ing that it will take till 2024/5 “I want to be a rubbish or beyond to recover the passenger numbers and revenue resulting from the dramatic effects of Covid-19. So why are they at this time collector…I hear the having a pre-consultation to increase their capacity by 1million pas- industry is picking up!” sengers a year? You will recall that they had till 2025 to reach 18M but managed to Okay…I’m convinced…how can I get do it within 5 years (2019) by offering discounts to airlines. Accord- ing to published information they are offering further discounts as involved? part of the operators deal with Luton Borough Council (the owners) If you use Facebook, then join our “Don’t Mess to increase numbers. with Wheathampstead” Facebook Page. Lack of evidence If you notice litter around your own neigh- The expansion does not set out any evidence of need as it would be bourhood and would like to help to keep it hard to find this during this current period of low demand. Over the clear of litter then you could join our growing last 7 years they pushed up numbers by 40%, added larger, noisier band of Wheathampstead Wombles. WDPS aircraft and in so doing broke their noise footprint conditions in will lend you a litter picker making it a COVID 2017, 2018 and 2019 several times over. They incentivised compa- -safe activity. Here’s a picture of Orinoco out- nies such as WIZZ Air (2019) to fly into Luton to maintain the cheap side the Chemist on the High Street when he holiday trade whilst the BA operation was left stranded on closed came to visit runways at Heathrow (April 2020).