Is it just me or has anyone else noticed the ever growing swathes of litter on the sides of the main roads around Abergavenny?

I seem to spend quite a lot driving these days largely thanks to work and over the past few month it seems the amount of rubbish presumably tossed from car windows has grown enormously.

Whether it’s paper bags, takeaway containers, cardboard boxes or plastic bottles filled with very suspicious looking liquid, the grassy banks are smattered with detritus chucked through car windows by motorists far too proud of the pristine interiors of their immaculately valeted vehicles to transport their trash to the nearest rubbish bin.

Now, as my friends and family will doubtlessly attest, I’m a calm person, not given to blasts of irrational anger, but it does absolutely make my blood boil to see the countryside plastered with rubbish and I find myself indulging in flights of fancy about chain gangs made up of those caught next to a wall with a spray can in their hands or vandalising the hard work of others, being tasked with the job of picking up every scrap of rubbish and disposing of it responsibly.

Maybe it would make them think twice before digging plants out of the town’s flower displays, or snapping branches off saplings in Bailey Park if they were forced to clear up the mess left by equally thoughtless people.

While I’m on a mid-week rant I have to say if there’s anything worse - marginally - that litter throwing motorists, it is dog owners who refuse to clean up after their pets. They say there’s no such thing as bad dogs, only bad owners and I heartily agree with that.

While piles of dog mess on sports fields and near parks are horrendous, even worse is muck left on pavements and town centre streets.

I’ve noticed it particularly recently as I’ve sat in our new office in Monmouth where countless people allow their dogs to wee in the doorway, gazing at them indulgently as they merrily tinkle on the tiles before heading off to finish their shopping.

Last week in the ultimate insult a dog owner - or potentially a critic - allowed their pampered pooch to poo in the doorway, dashing off up the street without any attempt to clean up.

We - or at least the poor unfortunates who were actually working in the office on that day - would have been more than happy to have donated a plastic bag to pick up the offending mess, or maybe proffered a bucket of water or even a mop to help with the clean up - it would have been far preferable to having to attack the mess left in the office by an unwitting and very embarrassed customer who managed to walk through the unwanted deposit.

As I repeated this litter rant to The Mother earlier this week, she gazed at me open eyed.

“I do agree with you, but I can’t help smile at the irony,” she said. “I’ve never known anyone to leave such a trail of devastation in their wake as you. When you were young I could always find you in the house by following the trail of shoes, coats, bags and books you left as you walked through the door!”

“You still can,” muttered the housemate

“That’s different,” I said stalking off….then slinking back to pick up the book I’d abandoned on the chair.