A WHITCHURCH resident has called on Shropshire Council to do more after discovering litter – and human excrement – at a layby on the A41.

Vicky Crosby says she recently stopped in the layby between McDonald’s roundabout and the Tilstock Road roundabout on the A41 after witnessing a lorry driver discarding a bottle.

To her shock the bottle contained urine, and she believes the driver had also defecated on the pavement.

After getting out of her car to clear the litter at the layby Vicky spotted a number of tyres that had been dumped.

“I stopped and beeped at this truck who threw a bottle of urine out and just drove off, and turns out he had pooed on the pavement,” said Vicky.

“So I got out with a bag and gloves and high vis and picked up all the litter on the pavement, only to find all this pile on the ditch behind and a mountain of tyres.

“And this is only one layby of the bypass.”

Vicky has called for Shropshire Council to do more to clean up its laybys, and is pushing for the installation of ‘littercams’ to detect and fine drivers who litter.

Litter cameras are soon to be trialled by Maidstone Council in Kent, and were the recent subject of a BBC feature, highlighting their effectiveness.

For the would-be litterers of Maidstone, fines will begin at £90 and rise to £120 if left unpaid for 15 days – not far off the maximum on-the-spot fine in England of £150.

This is something Vicky would like to see implemented.

“I’d like the council to step up and clean our bypass,” added Vicky. “Put signs up advising where the truck stop with toilets is and then erect litter cameras that detect litter and scan number plate and issue a fine.”

Last month the A41 was compared to a “landfill site” by campaigners who were litter picking on the bypass around the town.

The volunteers, calling themselves ‘The Whitchurch Ringroad Gardening Club’, have retrieved two tonnes of waste on a stretch of the road between Tarporley Road and Belton Farm.

They have temporarily been forced to pause their efforts as a result of Covid measures, but say they will finish the final stretches when restrictions are eased.

Shropshire Council has been approached for comment.