WE are visitors from Australia and in our five-week stay, so far unfinished, we have been appalled at the amount of junk scattered along country roads – in the grass, in the hedgerows, even in the drains.

It’s little better at home – with one significant difference. Every year about this time we have Clean-Up Australia, a weekend campaign to get rid of the debris left by people keen to use the land as a rubbish dump.

Volunteers fish out such exotic items as fridges and washing machines from streams and gullies.

Of course it doesn’t last – one weekend in 52 is never enough. But at least it makes everyone aware of the desperate need to keep the place clean.

Could a similar campaign not begin here?

PC & J WILSON Miami, Gold Coast, Australia (written from Presteigne)