Exmouth man calls for improved litter measures

Exmouth Tidy Group member Alec Huett is calling for the people of Exmouth to be better educated about rubbish disposal.

Pensioner Alec Huett, of Shelley Reach, claims parts of Exmouth are ‘squalid’ because the council has made it too easy to dispose of rubbish.

Mr Huett believes the state of Exmouth’s streets would improve if the hand-holding stopped and residents were responsible for waste disposal.

The Exmouth grandfather likened the town centre’s fast food outlets to the ‘old wild west’, calling for a crackdown on ‘gum slingers’ and a ban on consuming food in the street.

He believes residents’ attitude would only change if council enforcements were made.

Mr Huett said: “It has been customary to rid ourselves of our rubbish too easily. This has made parts of our town squalid and by definition someone else’s problem.

“It has to be made the product of our own behaviour.

“Our council administrators must have the means, and courage, to make the new choices stick.

“The citizens of Exmouth will have to follow the new rules.

“The same thing applies to our new Strand area. Our authorities must be bold.

“At night the town centre is not unlike Dodge City, but without Wyatt Earp town marshal to shoot the gum slingers who visit the saloons each weekend.

“It maybe flippant, but part of our town centre is becoming very like the old wild west, not the Westcountry as we like to know it.

“Our planning departments should encourage any proposed takeaway outlet that its food should be for eating at home, not consumed in the street.”

Mr Huett also called for the district council to refuse fast food outlets licences if premises failed to provide adequate facilities, including toilets and washrooms.

And he believes such businesses should be allocated with bar-coded, seagull-proof, bin bags in a bid to curb littering of Exmouth’s streets.