Blog: The day was just perfect, says Dave Morris.

The sun was shining, the sea was a beautiful blue, and the views of the Lleyn Peninsula were stunning.

But as we made our way through the sand dunes to the beach at the Welsh beauty spot, I nearly put my foot on an empty gin bottle.

It was hardly visible and it was only by chance that I noticed a tiny piece of its green neck.

The bottle had only the lightest covering of sand and goodness only know what the result would have been if some barefooted walker had stepped on to it and the glass had shattered.

As we continued our walk I was thankful I was wearing shoes.

On the beach there were many empty beer cans,mostly in little piles of four or six, plus various plastic bottles, and even supermarket shopping bags containing what appeared to be picnic leftovers.

This rubbish hadn’t been washed up. It was above the tide line and had been dumped by visitors – probably the same sort of people who throw empty soft drink bottles and cans out of moving cars.

I do wonder how much progress we have made as a nation when it comes to litter.

There just seems to be so much of it about despite strong anti-litter campaigns and education programmes that have been running since the 1950s.

What makes people so untidy, so lazy? I really don’t know.

My office colleague, Sue, is really irritated – and rightly so – by dog owners who scoop up their pet’s poo in a plastic bag and then throw it into a hedge or even tie it up to a tree branch. What on earth that’s all about, goodness only knows.

I wouldn’t for one moment dream of littering the countryside, a beach, or anywhere else come to that.

But plenty of others can’t be bothered to carry their rubbish away and obviously have no understanding of civic pride. I have no doubts that they will be out in force this holiday weekend.

Surveys have revealed that 48 per cent of the population admit to dropping litter.

But strangely enough it is claimed that 83 per cent of those who drop litter are irritated by others who do the same! Talk about hypocritical double standards.

So what’s the answer? Again, I really don’t know.

There are hefty fines for littering but how easy is it to catch litter louts, particularly in the countryside or on the beach?

I suppose we need to keep supporting charities such as Keep Britain Tidy and Keep Wales Tidy. The situation I fear would be even worse without them.