Thank you for highlighting the Test Valley litter blight in your columns, and I reply in particular to the author – Mr, Mrs or Miss Name-and-address-supplied, of your headline letter.

A splendid letter, apart from the last paragraphs, which are annoying and disappointing.

The annual spring clean day in Abbotts Ann – not in my recollection ever held over an Easter weekend because people are generally doing other things – was supported by up to, at best, a dozen people.

Sometimes it spread over several days because willing individuals couldn’t work on the specific date. It didn’t matter as, knowing where they had been left, I was able to take my Land Rover and trailer, gather the filled bags and bring to the collection point at the War Memorial Hall, where Test Valley Borough Council would collect them by prior arrangement.

Thus, the one day spread to two, three, four days, and so on to the degree that several litter pickers under the enthusiastic encouragement of Paul Kelly and Anne Kelly – now the Tidy Village Group – are to be regularly encountered with black bags and “claws” as they walk the lanes and pathways of the village.

Last spring, thanks to our borough councillors, our litter pickers were joined by staff of TVBC for a Sparkle Day which even cleaned road signs in the village. Unfortunately, the main roads, the Andover by-pass and Salisbury Road (A303 and A343) are off-limits for safety reasons.

A great pity, as this may be how the travellers judge our parish, and contrary to their perception – and possibly that of your correspondent – the parish council is highly exercised against litter. The Abbotts Ann village correspondent referred, in a recent edition of the Andover Advertiser, to a young lady of Abbotts Ann undertaking litter-picking as part of her Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Scheme project.

Thank you to your correspondent for writing about litter. The parish council would rather you contacted the members and, with them, “act to do something about it”. If you think litter is accumulating, please join Mr Kelly and the Tidy Village Group. You will be made very welcome and we look forward to meeting you.

Bernard Griffiths Chairman, Abbotts Ann Parish Council