...... Really sad to hear about the 'demise' of Stanley Park - I haven't been for maybe 18 months but it seemed OK then - a lot longer since I last fished there.....
Many of us grew up with Parks which were staffed and maintained - unfortunately many Parks Departments have disappeared with the staff being made redundant in the last round of cuts - result= no 'parkies' to keep the place nice and tidy - or tell you off for leaving litter!
Talking to one of the Canal & Rivers Trust Volunteer Litter-pickers, the other day, whilst fishing the Leeds & Liverpool Canal near Wigan. His 'beat' is from near Chorley down to near Wigan and is reasonably happy with the tidiness of the Wigan-end of the 'beat' but commented about the amount of Anglers litter towards the Chorley end!
Apart from the usual rubbish - plastic bags, sweet wrappers, and fag packets - there is also a great deal of Angling-specific rubbish - hook packets, discarded line, bait tins (Meat, sweetcorn and Hemp), etc!
Given that there are already complaints raised this last year over litter on some of our waters on rivers and ponds - I have posted an appeal on the Club Forum to ALL club members to take not only their own litter home but to collect any more they see and take that too!
Response on the Club's forum has been underwhelming - apart from one member who echoed my appeal and pointed out that this has been a problem on the Club waters on & off for the last 20 years and his attempts to get members to do some litter-picks have fallen on deaf ears.
I contrast this with Salford Friendly AS (a free club!) who had a good turn-out on one of their recent litter-picks - collecting 50 bin-bags of mainly non-angling rubbish!
The contrasting attitudes of the "I've paid me subs - don't see why I should bother collecting litter" with the free Club members "If not us then who?" is interesting!
Please take your litter away - as well as anyone else's you find.:thumbs: