Willing Wombles' clean sweep

The clean-up operation used to fall to furry, pointy-nosed creatures who lived in burrows. They were called Wombles and as professional litter-pickers it was their job to collect the things that the everyday folk left behind.

But in 2008, in the face of rising levels of flytipping and the tragic absence of the Wombles of Wimbledon, it is the job of the Burys of Broadstone to instigate the clear-up.

Living in the heart of this Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, the family - Frank and Antonia Bury, along with their children Willa, 7, Luke, 4, and Florence, 3 - have watched as levels of passing traffic through their village and, in particular, flytipping, have grown steadily worse.

Four years ago they decided to act and take matters into their own hands by regularly braving the rural roadsides near their village and picking up litter cast from passing cars.

"We find empty beer cans, pep drinks, Coke cans and plastic bags galore," says Frank. "We can fill three bin bags in a morning.

"Then you have the odd nappy and children's toy - it's pretty broad-ranging."

Such junk, of course, betrays a flytipper's tastes.

"You get an idea of what people's favourite canned beer is - Carling or Stella - and which is their preferred fizzy drink - Lucozade or Sprite," Frank explains.

"And you get a good impression of which fags they like - it's mainly Lambert & Butler."

Picking up other people's debris from the roadside might not seem like everyone's idea of fun, but, believe it or not, in this part of the world people take pride in the appearance of their villages. And anyway, no one else is doing much about it.

Villagers rarely see local authority crews take part in the clear-up and, anyway, the Burys keep the verges so spotless that it would be an imaginative person who thought there was a problem in the first place.

However, closer inspection of the stretch between Hungerford and Broadstone reveals myriad culprits: a dumped Farm Foods carrier bag, several plastic pop bottles, beer cans and polystyrene takeaway boxes.

It might not seem like a lot, but it's only been a few days since the Burys were last out here with their array of bin bags.

As the Burys fill up yet more bin liners with other people's rubbish, passing cars toot their horns and motorists shout messages of encouragement.

One driver calls out "Good job!"

Yet it's not just the nearby villages of Broadstone, Hungerford and Munslow that are prone to nuisance tipping of course. Episodes of flytipping around the county are, annecdotally at least, on the increase.

Look no further than Shifnal for extreme examples. Could anyone top a old boat dumped on the roadside? Someone certainly could - the person who dumped a caravan. Such a flamboyant style of tipping was almost enough to point the finger at a former winner from Sale of the Century.

It's hard to guess why flytipping is on the increase, but everyone can speculate. Perhaps it's because a generation has grown up without the Keep Britain Tidy message being drummed into them.

Perhaps it's the inordinate amount of packaging that comes with goods these days. Perhaps it's because there is a mobile work culture where people use their Ford Mondeos as a satellite McDonald's.

Perhaps some councils don't help themselves by charging people for the collection of certain waste materials.

Or maybe another reason that people are tempted into the life of a flytipper is because of the way household waste is disposed of today.

The focus is certainly slanted towards the three 'R's - recycle, recycle, recycle - and families in south Shropshire are furnished with three different kinds of waste bins to sort their rubbish into. But is this a bit confusing and a bit too much like hard work?

Frank has a hunch that, although it needn't be, the reality is that some people simply can't be bothered to go to the effort of sorting their waste into the right bin and that a small minority revolt by throwing it on the road.

Frank grew up with the Keep Britain Tidy message rattling around in conscience and says that solutions could include putting Keep Britain Tidy logos on village signs, penalising litter bugs or finding ways of discouraging motorists from tipping in the first place.

Alan Meyrick of South Shropshire District Council's Streetscene project says flytipping is not on the increase, but admitted there were problems from a health-and-safety perspective in deploying litter crews on winding country roads.

Despite all this, Frank and the family say they don't mind too much following in the footsteps of Uncle Bulgaria and co.

"We do it with the kids and it's fun. They all get pocket money if they fill the bags and we take the bags down to Craven Arms and sort the rubbish into bins.

"We might all go and have fish and chips afterwards, but there are better things to do.

"Willa is definitely more aware and she asks 'Why do people throw things out of the window and why do we have to do this?'"

Franks adds: "It does make me feel pretty angry and Willa feels a bit upset, especially when you see a bit of road you've just cleared up and it's the same again. It's a necessary chore because nobody else seems to be doing it."

Willa herself says: "These people don't know what they are doing. They are ruining our beautiful countryside with their litter."