Dog walkers on Moorside usually have a bad reputation because of the small number that do not clear up after their dog. However, two dog walkers get my praise for clearing up the mess of other selfish users of Moorside, who held a massive and illegal fireworks party there on Sunday night, and left the moor near the car park strewn with firework cartons, boxes, plastic and waste. It took these two dog walkers over 20 minutes on Monday morning to collect the rubbish, and pile it up next to one of the bins in the car park. They tell me it was a heap at least three times the size of the bin.
By luck, Monday morning is one of the scheduled collections by the District Council, and so by the time I got to the moor, most of this waste had been piled into the back of the truck (see picture). But we spent more time, along with one of the dog walkers who had come back to take his own photograph, picking up lots of bits of plastic that would be such a hazard to both dogs and the wildlife of the moor.
In this instance, the appalling irresponsibility of a few people has been quickly dealt with. I went to the excellent firework display that Baildon Rugby Club puts on very year, and so there is no excuse if this selfish group did in fact come from Baildon. What is clear from this incident is that there is pride in Baildon, for its moor and other open spaces. The fact that one of the dog walkers contacted me as a parish councillor shows that he wants the parish council to support him, and to work on his behalf to maintain that pride. He noted that these were situations where the environmental warden, working with the people of Baildon, could start to make a difference.
