YET again the long suffering and heroic unpaid volunteer litter pickers turned out on Darlington’s Broken Scar this weekend.

By Saturday morning the river bank looked its usual beautiful self. The dozens of bags of litter are lying in heaps to be eventually collected by the council.

At 10.30 on Saturday morning there was a Civic Enforcement vehicle and officer parked in the top car park. Walkers commented on the futility of this, since all the lager and litter louts had long gone, and the clean up had been done.

It would be a better use of resources to have officers on Broken Scar when the crowds are there, drinking and lighting fires. Low Coniscliffe suffers in the same way. Is anyone breathalysing drivers leaving these areas in the evening?

No doubt there are official answers to all this. I just don’t hear them. I understand that the council is not responsible for this loutish behaviour, but the fact is, no one appears to be stopping it, and it is costing the rest of us money through our council tax.

Alexandra Bailey, Darlington