SUNDAY morning started with the most beautiful sky over Lodmoor Nature Reserve and was heralded in by the distant twit twooo of a tawny owl. Looking out the window, great egrets were gracefully flying in to feed in the many reed bed pools, and herring gulls were noisily wheeling overhead. So, off for my daily dose of beauty and wonderment walking around this lovely place.

However, strolling along the ‘west scrape’ - a path which runs parallel to the entrance of the recycling centre I witnessed an act of unbelievable selfishness, ignorance and downright stupidity.

Whilst this weekend there are many generous and well meaning folk taking part in beach clean-ups and the like, there was this one moronic individual who just couldn’t be bothered to wait for the re-cycling centre to open and saw fit to throw his assorted rubbish (including a child’s pink pushchair) over the bramble hedge and into the waters of the Nature Reserve. Unbelievable!

Unfortunately he was too far away for me to get a photo of him, but he was probably 30ish, dark hair and driving a navy saloon car - probably a Mondeo or similar. Again, unfortunately the car was partly obscured by the hedge so I was also unable to get a registration number.

This isn’t the first time that rubbish has been deposited in this way. A few weeks ago, what looked like builders detritus including asbestos sheets were tossed over the hedge in the same place. Obviously difficult and expensive to retrieve for those concerned in clearing the mess up.

To the ignorant people who do this sort of thing, you should be thoroughly ashamed. Our beautiful planet is slowly but surely being destroyed by the likes of you and our children and their children will be the ones that suffer in the long run.

Maureen Rudd

Address supplied