So who cares about the litter problem in our neighbourhood?

Every council tax payer is paying for the litter to be swept up. That is money that could and should be spent on other local projects and services.

There is a clear link between litter and anti-social behaviour and crime. Study after study has found that where an area looks unkempt and untidy through litter, flytipping, and graffiti, crime increases. Even in fiction... look at the films like Batman. When the young batman's parents were murdered, look at the litter on the ground. It is a recognised fact that litter is one of the factors that sets the scene for crime and anti-social behaviour.

Selling your house? Do you think that someone would want to pay more for it if it was in an area that was all tidy and litter free...or one where litter is strewn over the ground.

Litter encourages rats and disease. Already in some parts of our Semilong Northampton neighbourhood, residents have said that rats are getting more noticeable. This rat problem is not independent of the litter problem.

Someone sent us a reply to one video of litter [see our reader's comments section here] that litter was okay in Alliston Gardens and almost that it was to be expected there. Tosh !! Litter is not acceptable in any part of our Semilong Northampton neighbourhood.

The problems of one section of our community affect it all. This is clearer with problems like prostitution and kerb-crawling but it holds true for all.

Northampton Borough Council should provide alternatives to dropping litter.

So where should people be putting litter if not on the ground? Remarkable that SEMILONG.ORG should have to raise this but we feel we have to.

Litter should be taken home with you or dropped into a litter bin...common sense.

Unfortunately, in an area of well over 2000 residents and visitors there are only FOUR litter bins.

SEMILONG.ORG have asked for more, and we were asked by a Northampton Borough Council officer, "so who would pay to empty them?" The question is not un-reasonable in itself because the litter bins do need to be emptied. However, the question was astonishing as the answer was clear. As there would be a lot less litter strewn on the ground that residents would have to in some cases, wade through. the cost savings of not having to sweep up as much would pay to empty the litter bins.

Far quicker, far cleaner, and far better for residents.

CCTV an asset in the war against litter louts. You would think so.

A CCTV camera which can pan round, tilt and zoom in was installed several years ago on Semilong Road, the main shopping street in Semilong Northampton. It was installed as a anti-crime measure and is monitored 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Litter is a crime which can earn people an £80 fixed penalty ticket a time, or a day in court being prosecuted.

The CCTV camera in the five or so years that it has been in situ has resulted in NOT one person being issued with a fixed penalty ticket or being prosecuted in the courts.

This is despite it overlooking the main litter hot spot on Semilong Road. The worst area for litter and the monitored CCTV camera has not seen who drops the litter 20 feet away.

SEMILONG.ORG have heard the argument that the camera is being used "to catch rapists and murderers and not people dropping litter" SEMILONG.ORG's answer was clear..those crimes, quite thankfully, do not happen 24 hours a day in Northampton. Also operators elsewhere like in PETERBOROUGH CITY COUNCIL CCTV offices, they spot people littering and those people are traced and fined for their anti-social activities.

So..let us ask again, 'Why can't Northampton's CCTV catch litter louts in Semilong Northampton??'

Peterborough City Council have an extremely responsible attitude to litter louts. They catch them and fine or prosecute them. This novel way of dealing with these anti-social people who choose to blight other people's lives with litter, is to be highly praised indeed.

They even put the images of those they wish to trace onto their website to aid identification. Outstanding and responsible..

[see the Peterborough City Council gallery here]

SEMILONG.ORG ask 'When will Northampton Borough Council give the problem of litter on Semilong Northampton streets the attention it deserves?'

Semilong Northampton's twinned area of St. Peters in Leicester has suffered with a tremendous litter problem for years.

Council administrations and councillors came and went but the litter problem remained.

Then our twinned neighbourhood group STPETERSNM.COM began a `RISK IT OR BIN IT` campaign.

The campaign involves recording on high definition video the litter louts dropping litter or throwing it over fence. They then put the resulting video and photographs onto the internet on their own site STPETERSNM.COM and on their Youtube channel.

The publicity this attracted was massive. The story started local in the Leicester Mercury newspaper before quickly going to local radio, then to national television and radio.

This controversial campaign, though entirely legal, was not popular at first with some bleating about people's rights rather than people's responsibilities. They forgot about resident's rights not to have to suffer the sight, smells and health hazards of litter on a daily basis.

The `RISK IT OR BIN IT` campaign, however, led to the biggest reduction in litter in the St Peters neighbourhood ever. The streets are far cleaner as a result. Even Leicester City Council have had to create new policies to allow for the processing of people contacting them asking to pay fines for littering to have the video and images removed from the St Peters neighbourhood website.

Leicester City Council have thanked the neighbourhood group for this achievement of reducing the litter on the streets. The first reduction on this scale ever.

Resident's as a result now live in a much cleaner environment, thanks to STPETERSNM.COM.

This clearly shows that resident's neighbourhood groups can and do succeed when other more softly softly approaches fail.

SEMILONG.ORG agree entirely with the actions of STPETERSNM.COM. We have had a similar campaign running, although ours is more to do with fly-tipping which is a greater problem here in Semilong Northampton. [see the fly-tipping section here] We will though also record and publish the video and images of those seen littering. [see our litter lout section]

Nothing, absolutely nothing, can excuse the deliberate disregard and contempt that anyone has for all the other people in the Semilong Northampton community by throwing litter on the ground.

That is why we our taking our tough stance on this. That is why we are publishing photographs and video of Litter Louts on the internet for the whole world to see.

If you can name any litter lout published here, SEMILONG.ORG would like to hear from you.

Or if you have any video or image files of your own, again please contact us. Please include a face shot and also the actual dropping of the litter and the person walking away. Even if we only show an edited version, we need the full footage in order to support our case.

Litter Lout 1	Litter Lout 2 [video coming soon]
Litter Lout 3 [video coming soon]	Litter Lout 4 [video coming soon]

Alliston Gardens & Semilong Generally