School children dropping litter along my street, should I write to the head?

[northerner]

I moved into my new house about 4 weeks ago and it's great, apart from one issue. The local secondary school kids use our street as a cshort cut to school, no problem with that, but they all go to the local shop first for their breakfast I think, so as they walk along our street they drop their rubbish as they go. Most of it ends up in our front garden. Crisp packets, milkshake bottles, chocolate bar wrappers etc. This morning I picked up 8 bits of litter from my front garden and 11 on the path outside

Dh did shout at some yesterday and they basically gave him the finger.

Should I write to the school, saying how annoyed I am?

Worth a try, but to be honest everyone seems to do this these days, not just kids!

Rubbish thrown out of car windows. Woman at train station who always opens a stick of gum and throws the wrapper onto the ground.

I don't know when it suddenly became acceptable to just fling rubbish down whereever you might happen to be!

I think one day I'll get punched in the gob for loudly commenting when people do it! Worst still my DCs have started making comment too! 'Mummy did you see that lady; she is littering'!!!!

But it's teh sheer scale of it. Practically half a school littering my street 5 mornings a week.

Collect the weeks rubbish from the street and make an appointment to see the head taking the rubbish with you..how far away is the school?

That's a great idea! Mot sure I'd have the balls to do it though.......

I would tbh, and if they are dismissive I'd contact the council as they are the people who have to clean it up in the end!

yeah do that northerner! Good idea. (If you really dont have the balls - dump it anonymously with anonymous letter saying which street.....)

approach the council too, perhaps they could provide litter bins and liaise with the school

you don't need to approach the head aggressively, think of some constructive suggestions to help the problem eg a litter/environmental project in school (only effective with the youngest ones I think)

Message withdrawn

I think you should, when i was at school a resident complained and the headmaster went off on one saying we should be ashamed of ourselves etc etc...might hit a nerve with a few if not all.

Is the school responsible for the children when they are out of school? I think taking the litter in is a brilliant idea - if I was the head I would think of using it (literally -whoops no pun intended) to do an assembly around. (Do they still have assemblies in shcools? Such a long time since I was at one . The one thing I imagine you don't want is to be singled out as the complaining house in the street, as that might encourage even more....

I remember being at school and our head going crazy if anyone complained about our behaviour out of school whilst wearing uniform. Think they like to think that whilst in uniform they should act accordingly - sort of like ambassadors for the school.

Might collect next weeks rubbish and post it in a box along with a letter. Won't be aggressive at all, just want to get my point accross.

We have stuff shoved into our hedge . Have newsagent across the road. I have been known to bellow, attractively, from the front door like some old fishwife for them to piss off somewhere else and take their noise and litter with them.

I think schools like any community based business are keen to get on with their neighbours, also littering relates to general behaviour and so tackling it can help raise the culture of the school in other behaviour issues.

The head probably travels in to school and may well be unaware of the problem and be p[leased to have it drawn to her/his attention

Good luck

god yes, draw it to the attention of the head. whether or not it is technically the school's problem is neither here nor there - any responsible school will want to point out to their children that this behaviour is illegal and anti-social. maybe need to put in a litter bin in a strategic place?

Is it actuallt illegal to drop litter then?

indeed so, Environmental Protection Act iirc. sadly only punishable with fines rather than forcible insertion of dropped item.
I have zero tolerance...

Good. Will use that in my letter. Thanks!

Do litter wardens exist in UK? They exist in Ireland but can only fine adults I think, but can lurk around if you advise them where. Our local shops are good at having bins and sweeping up their patch, but by the time kids have finished their greasy things they are out of range of the bins. (Which cost a huge amount of money according to our council so no we can't have any more.)

Northener

You are in Harrogate aren't you??

Which school ??

Because I complained to one before re the bakery at lunchtime, and got results.

Are you in Harrogate too Lady Sherlock?

It's Granby High School.

I was on St Winifreds Avenue, and we had a bakery at the end of the road. The children from St Aidans used to buy their Pizzas, sausage rolls etc., walk down SWA to the Wetherby Road and around to the Stray, dropping litter merrily, as they went. Several residents complained at the same time. They had an assembly on the subject of respect for the environment and it reduced to the point where we didn't mind picking up the odd bit.

ring up i woudl

Oh I see. Maybe it will work then.

When did you leave harrogate then?

June 1990