Northampton man's walk to work video shows the extent of town's litter problem

Engineer and dad-of-two Stuart Lancaster used to walk his children from Northcote Street to Spring Lane Primary School around the Grafton Street Industrial Estate.

Now the 45-year-old walks to work the same way and says the levels of litter and fly-tipping have escalated to a new level.

Stuart, who has lived in Semilong for 28 years, decided to make a two-minute video showing the journey after bin collection day last week in the hope of encouraging others not to dump litter or put rubbish out in the incorrect bin liners.

His short clip shows the grass verges along the route littered with left takeaway containers, cans and packaging at every step of the way.

"That video shows one small area around the industrial estate in Grafton Street, it's ridiculous," said Stuart.

"On my street there has been rubbish bags there for five weeks.

"But Semilong Road is just horrendous - there is stuff all the way up the street and mattresses everywhere.

"I'm ashamed to say i actually live here."

Stuart said Northampton Borough Council's new environmental services contractor Veolia will need to collect dumped litter in Semilong much better than the predecessors, Enterprise, ever did.

But he urged those leaving the rubbish to stop and take some pride in the place as well.

"I did this because people just don't respect the area that they live in, I don't care if I get any abuse for it.

"If people start seeing the road clean others might stop treating it like a tip."

A spokesman for Northampton Borough Council said: “We know that the majority of residents dispose of their rubbish in a responsible way. However, there is a small minority of people who think it is acceptable to dump rubbish and furniture on our streets and in our parks.

“Not only does this spoil our town environment, it also costs tax payers, on average £233.28 per incident to clear.

“We are working hard to keep the town clean and enforce where evidence allows, but we do encourage communities to assist us. Please keep reporting instances of fly tipping as they occur. Do not accept bad behaviour in your area and set a good example by clearing up after yourself, taking litter home if public bins are full and putting your waste and recycling out on the correct days. These simple actions can have a massive impact on the town’s environment.”