Drive and Stroll, with Ron Freethy

APRIL is the month when Going for Green, British Waterways and the Mersey Basin Campaign are combining their efforts to try to prevent litter being thrown into the Leeds and Liverpool Canal.

It is right that we should attack litter and also celebrate the fact that running through the heart of East Lancashire is one of the world's most famous waterways.

I never tire of looking at old photographs of the canal corridor. One of my favourites shows the canal working hard to keep Burnley at the forefront of King Cotton's empire.

From the point of view of those who love to drive and stroll, the 127-mile canal is ideal because the only industry along the Leeds to Liverpool these days is tourism. There are plenty of places to park and the old inns which once provided stabling for the barge horses now serve meals.

Many of the historic features remain but some needing searching out.

In the car park at Sainsbury's supermarket in Burnley there is an old lime kiln (pictured) with a plaque on it. This tells of the time when Burnley was developing as a cotton town.

It needed lots of mortar for its buildings. The limestone for this was brought in by barge and was burned in these kilns.

Steps lead up from the car park to the stretch of the canal called the "straight mile" -- which is not straight and is also less than a mile. Forget the Trades Descriptions Act, however, and accept that this stretch is one of the wonders of the canal age.

There are also excellent stretches of the canal through Barnoldswick, Foulridge, Hapton, Rishton, Accrington and Chorley, so why don't you plan to explore the cut over Easter.

Nobody enjoys walking along stretches of the canal if it is smothered in litter. This is why it makes sense to have this April clean-up. I am angry to see people giving up their time to clean up areas like this only to find other people still dumping rubbish.

What this country needs is anti-litter laws which are easily understood and which carry a hefty fine. Industry gets fined for polluting -- why should I get away with dropping litter? We will all drive and stroll over Easter. Do your bit and take your litter home.