Cats eyes and road signs ‘dumped’ on A26 grass verges

That’s the verdict of committed litterpicker Dev Jaffe from Lewes who was shocked to find dozens of discarded cats’ eyes and road signs dumped on the verges of the A26 near Ringmer.

Dev said: “I couldn’t believe what I saw. I do two hours’ litterpicking every morning and I was clearing verges on the A26 between Ham Lane and Wellingham Lane when I found heaps of half buried cats’ eyes. There were also decaying roadsigns. My first thought was ‘what a waste of public money’ and how dangerous this is for when the mowing teams come round with heavy equipment.

“I’m a member of the team of litter collectors who work on the verges of the A27 and one of the big problems there is that plastic and other waste is torn up by mowers. We ask the council to let us know when they are going to mow and they tell us they don’t know. But then we discover there is a programme to preserve the wild flowers alongside the roads so they must have some idea.

“It’s just not joined up thinking.”

Dev explained Lewes District Council is ‘incredibly helpful’ and provides pick-up sticks and black bags but all their efforts are frustrated by no information about when mowing will take place and huge problems they face when collecting heavy items, presumably owned by County’s Highways’ teams.

An East Sussex Highways spokesman said: “We have been made aware that some items were left by the roadside in an apparent oversight by one of our subcontractors after recent work on the A26. We’re grateful to people for bringing this to our attention and we went to the location on Wednesday and removed these items. We will also raise this with our subcontractor as this is not the level of service we expect from them and such actions clearly undermine the good service we endeavour to provide for the residents of East Sussex.”