IN CYCLING from Blackburn through the Trough of Bowland to Lancaster and back along the A6, a distance of 58 miles, I was appalled yet again by the amount of roadside litter.

I estimate there was a minimum of one discarded item, each side, for every ten yards of road making a total of over 20,400!

Favourite throwaways were soft drink and beer cans followed by cigarette and crisp packets.

While certain stretches were fairly clean, notably the

Trough road itself, the overall picture is very depressing especially when a large part of the journey was through a designated area of outstanding natural beauty.

If forecast traffic increases are true, can we expect a similar increase in roadside rubbish? The slogan "Take your litter home" seems to be all but forgotten.

ROGER KIMM, Newington Avenue, Blackburn.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.