Local Children Gather Five Bags of Rubbish from Riverbank

A farmer based in Worcester reports that he is forced to clear debris from his fields on a daily basis. During the half-term break, the situation escalated when his own children managed to fill five bags with rubbish in just a single afternoon.

Tristan Bennett, who operates Bennett’s Farm in Lower Wick, noted that individuals using the public footpaths alongside the River Teme frequently abandon items such as clothing, towels, sweet wrappers, and bottles. The discarded waste poses a serious threat to livestock. "Quite often, half-eaten sweet packets... and if a cow smells the sweet sugar they'll try and eat it and then if it's stuck in the packet, they'll eat a whole packet, which can then get stuck in their guts and kill a cow," Bennett explained.

According to Bennett, the volume of litter has increased significantly since the lockdown period. He observed that the area became a favored spot for local schools and children following a hot summer. "It's great people are out in the countryside and enjoying themselves, but the problem is what they leave behind... always so much rubbish and just their own possessions - they don't really seem to care about them and leave them scattered all over the riverbank," he said.

The issue came to a head one afternoon when Bennett’s children were walking with their grandfather. Upon discovering a large accumulation of abandoned items, they decided to intervene. "We spent about four hours tidying up rubbish," recounted Bennett’s eight-year-old child. "We found a load of towels, plastic bags, loads of alcoholic drinks, a load of socks and a pair of shoes. If they left their shoes, how would they even get home?"

In an effort to discourage loitering in the most affected areas, the farmer has resorted to spreading cattle slurry. "It's now very unpleasant," he admitted. "If I'm going to have to keep going down collecting rubbish to make it safe for my cows to go out to graze, we're going to do what actions we can to deter people."

Bennett acknowledged the drawbacks of this method, noting, "It obviously comes with a certain aroma, it's not very nice to walk through... and then the flies are really quite appalling, [but] they'll follow it round, so it deters people from stopping in that area."

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Source: BBC News Generated at: 2026-06-02 05:19:45 UTC