Sussex road litter has become a miserable eyesore

However, it wasn’t the film that stayed in my thoughts as I plunged out into the cold darkness wishing I lived closer to the cinema and had driven instead of boldly and coldly walking.

No, it was one of those magical moments of which there seem to be so few around these troubled days.

As usual, before the film started, the audience was subjected to a string of adverts, I usually switch off but one was exceptional and not for the product it was advertising – I honestly could not tell you what that was – it was the soundtrack that backed the ad.

The unforgettable voice, a familiar song and, if you listened carefully, you could hear the tune and the lyrics whispered from the mouths of the packed audience including mine and that of my companion. Ah, the magical Roy Orbison.

Those few seconds told me a great deal about the age of the audience and how this specially gifted singer is still appreciated in memory and, perhaps, even in dreams. A few magical moments and I sang softly to myself on the long, wet, cold, walk home.

|Also in the news - the opening date of the Subway near the A259 in Littlehampton has finally been announced; police are appealing for information after a cat was found stabbed to death outside its owner’s house in Sussex; and a Worthing woman drank so much alcohol in one sitting that she took her own life, a coroner has concluded|

GOOD news for those who, for some very strange reason, hate the fox and would be happy to see them eradicated, shot, poisoned, or hunted in order to keep their numbers ‘controlled’.

Driving along the A259 a few weeks back I counted four dead animals between Cemetery Corner and the Rustington turn off. Young animals I suspect, not well versed in the art of road safety.

Why hunt them down when Messer’s Toyota, Ford, Nissan, Vauxhall and motorised vehicles in general seem to be taking well care of that ill perceived problem anyway?

APART from dead animals, not only the fox and the badger the rabbit and the pheasant, road litter across Sussex is becoming, or has already become, an ugly roadside sight.

Seemingly, not so bad in West Sussex but certainly a miserable eyesore in the east of the county.

Government cuts to the local authority do not help and I guess money saved on one thing goes some way to saving cuts to other perhaps more important services.

It was not so long ago you would see the cleansing department out along the roadside picking and bagging litter, stacking the black bin bags at intervals for collection at the end of the day. Long time since I have seen that.

It is just a thought, and I am sure it would be dashed by the health and safety people, rather than a hefty fine which they cannot ever afford to pay anyway, perpetrators of minor offences should be given a few plastic bags, pickers, rubber gloves and orange jump suits and put to work providing a very real community service. Bit too extreme?

THE good news for me this week was that one of my best-selling western novels, A Man Called Crow, has now been published in hardcover, paperback, Kindle and in a large print edition. So, how’s about a movie...

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