Litter louts and bad drivers will ruin our Great British summer

Good manners don’t cost a thing, is what we're told as children. However it appears that as this pandemic forces the nation to adjust to life in the ‘new normal’, some appear to have forgotton the basics in human decency, and it would seem potty training too.

Almost a month has passed since Boris Johnson granted us the freedom to travel unlimited distances for exercise and leisure. For me that has meant another four weeks of resisting the urge to visit the place I cherish so dearly, the Lake District, at every given opportunity, as I heed the warnings of authorities and try to avoid inflicting any unnecessary strain on the local communities. While for others it has spelt permission to do as they wish, when they wish, where they wish, forgetting all manners and with no forethought to what it might mean for the rest of us.

Now, following headlines over recent days of piles of rubbish and abysmal parking on display in some of the UK’s most treasured beauty spots, this abuse of freedom has to stop – the litter louts and bad drivers of this country look set to ruin the Great British summer of staycations for the rest of us.

My fury ignited on Saturday, when from the comfort of my own back garden a plume of images of cars blocking a country lane in the Lake District preventing an ambulance from passing filled my newsfeed.

Then came the comments of grid lock streets in Cumbrian towns such as Ambleside and Coniston as pavements were turned into car parks. Elsewhere, badly parked cars were having to be rescued from beaches and there was widespread disregard for advice and guidance from local authorities.

Then I saw the litter and I went from concerned to angry. Pandemic or no pandemic, leaving rubbish in the countryside is never acceptable.

In one post on social media a local Lake District resident posted a photo of vodka and wine bottles bobbing in the stream behind her house, while many others shared images of discarded campfire sites on lakes shores, some complete with camping chairs and hammocks. This would never have happened on a busy day in the Lakes in the pre-Covid-19 world, so why now?

With cafes, pubs and restaurants still closed it's the responsibility of visitors to take their own supplies for a day in the fells at the moment – may I remind those that do visit that it’s just as easy to take the remains home with you as it is to bring them.

There’s no excuse for simply abandoning your car and hoping for the best either. Admitting that people will visit now they have the freedom to do so, the Lake District National Park, among others, has been running a campaign to encourage safety in the area. SaferLakes.co.uk lists car parks, outlines what facilities are open and shares safety advice for those venturing to the fells or swimming in the lakes. When I checked on Saturday I found that out of 102 car parks listed for public use, 66 were marked as very busy, busy or closed. The National Park authority publicly pleaded with visitors to please stay away and find an alternative to honeypots such as Bowness, Ambleside and Keswick.

What furied me further was there were over 40 car parks marked as not busy and open. Yet despite this, instead of leaving the crowds behind and opting for somewhere quieter, visitors had decided to take matters into their own hands, filling laybys and lining dry stone walls with their people carriers. Before you let common sense melt away with the marshmallows on your barbecue, consider if the first car park you arrive at is full, even if you’ve used it before, try another – you never know you might enjoy the challenge of visiting somewhere new, without having to fight for space.

Maybe my applause last month for great British common sense was too eager, maybe I was blinded by optimism that this summer would be a great one of exploring on home soil, sailing on the lakes and joining others, albeit from a safe distance, who relish in the outdoors as much as I do. It was set to be a summer where the Great British staycation rose back to its former glory, but I fear the tunnel vision of these selfish visitors could ruin it for the rest of us.

The demand for breaks on home soil this year is set to be unprecedented, but a survey of 7,000 people by Campsites.co.uk found that, while 90 per cent were keen for holidays to recommence next month, over half of the respondents were worried about the reception they’ll get from locals.

And they’d be right to be nervous, especially now. Thanks to these litter louts and bad drivers, local residences in the nation’s beauty spots are more angry than ever before. If things started off hostile they’re now close to boiling point, thanks to the bad manners of the minority. The barbeques left pose an alarming fire risk to these areas, especially during a heatwave, and the amount of litter being left for residents to clear is quite frankly embarrassing.

It wasn’t just the Lake District that turned into a public free-for-all. Dorset and Devon’s Jurassic Coast, a fellow Unesco World Heritage site, was deluged with crowds during the heatwave. Anna Taylor, a volunteer with the Clean Jurassic Coast conservation group, told the BBC: “I was picking things up that I really shouldn't have to pick up. I had litter thrown at me, I had bags and bags of rubbish dumped near me to deal with. I've had people shouting at me when I asked them nicely to take their litter with them."

"It was clear to see that some had all but forgotten the guidelines of social distancing or welfare for themselves and others, or indeed any respect for the natural environment they were visiting," Lucy Culkin, Jurassic Coast Trust chief executive, said.

"To witness the disregard with which Durdle Door, our beaches and coast paths have been treated is shocking."

Among the mess left behind for others to clear away at Durdle Door, which made headlines on Sunday after three people were airlifted to hospital, were piles of discarded face masks and plastic bottles filled with human waste.

This is where I draw a line. Reports of the human waste left behind all over the countryside, or fly peeing as it has been so crudely named, has pushed me over the metaphorical cliff edge. The Lake District, the Jurassic Coast, the Yorkshire Dales, Brighton beach and the Peak District are many things – eye-wateringly beautiful, wild and wonderful, peaceful and full of life all at once. They most certainly are not a public toilet.

Some will argue that as public toilets remain closed they are forced to use laybys, streams or even residents’ front gardens to relieve themselves, but their assumptions are wrong. The Safer Lakes website not only lists car parks that are open but also those with facilities that are too. Albeit a limited number, it's no excuse to leave it behind for some unsuspecting local volunteer to clean up – not to mention it's illegal to be caught in the act.

The government has even waded in on the debate, updating its advice on accessing green spaces safely with an entire section dedicated to respecting other people and protecting the natural environment. If peer pressure won’t stop this childlike behaviour maybe the Head Teacher can crack the whip.

“Remember your actions can affect people’s lives and livelihoods. Take the time to read signage. Respect the measures that local authorities and site management have put in place to help ensure social distancing,” reads the government advice.

This might be less of a scalding more a polite request, but this reminder of the Countryside Code should be seen as an education for those visitors who put more effort into posing for the perfect “Look where I am” Instagram snap than caring about a code of conduct.

Leave no trace, take all litter home, don’t use barbecues, don’t block gateways, driveways or other paths with your vehicles – it’s safe to say visitors to the likes of the Lake District and Durdle Door at the weekend might as well have used the Countryside Code handbook as fuel for their bonfires, with Boris Johnson’s social distancing advice as lighter fluid. For that, they should be ashamed.

Angry, upset and downright disgusted, this is not how anybody wants to feel as they look forward to their summer break. I like many have been forced to cancel trips aboard, trading them for rough plans to champion our doorstep destinations.

But the thought of spending a day at the beach surrounded by burnt out barbeques and rotten picnic snacks, or having to step over bags of rubbish or bottles of urine as I ascend the fells, all after having to navigate a warren of badly parked cars on previously peaceful country lanes, leaves a bitter taste and doesn’t make for pleasant postcard home. As does knowing your presence, even if it is innocent, is going to leave locals nervous, in some cases hostile, about what you might leave behind.

Every left bottle, whether empty or filled with human waste, irresponsible barbecue and poorly-parked car throws cold water on the planned staycations of the nation, whilst bad manners risk the “stay away” banners in the nation’s beauty spots becoming permanent fixtures. Therefore, in the spirit of politeness, I join the locals in their plea to visitors to respect the Great British countryside, beaches, moorlands and fells, please.