I have to admit it but we don’t have the best view from our front room window. In fact for lovely leafy Leamington it’s perhaps not the best view or most typical of our town. I live opposite a car show room that has flags flying in the daytime, lights glaring at night time and balloons by the dozen at the weekend to promote their special offers. So as you can imagine for someone who is passionate about sustainable transport it’s not a view I tend to marvel at.

Now a few months back on a Sunday afternoon we were lazing in the front room with our Sunday papers when I happened to look up and see a staff member walk around the car park and cut all the balloons free. Up, up, up they floated as the worker continued to set about 50 balloons free.

I was flabbergasted, as to me it was just plain littering. A business wouldn’t throw out 50 odd leaflets or food wrappers on the street. Just because they float upward and out of site doesn’t mean they are not litter when they land. They obviously weren’t thinking about where they were going to land as it would be far, far away out of sight and not on their land. Not their problem! I was also annoyed as I’d read that they posed a danger to wildlife as birds and marine creatures can mistake them for food similar to plastic bags and can choke on the remains.

The following Saturday to my shock horror when I drew back the curtains there were pink, blue and yellow balloons (yes, all colour co-ordinated) promoting their latest cut deal offer. This time there must have been over 100 balloons gracefully bobbing in the breeze. I wont go into the next half an hour but it involved me stomping around the house whilst my poor long suffering partner looked on bemused followed by me marching across the road to see the manger.

Luckily I ‘d found some info on the net about balloon littering and that organisations could be fined up to £2,500 if caught littering. Needless to say the manger did take seriously what I had to say and promised not to release (litter) any more. Whilst balloons are no way on the same scale as plastic bags for polluting our landscape. I still think it’s important for companies to realise the risks to our wildlife and that there is no excuse to litter. Hopefully the ‘Don’t let go’ campaign will raise awareness of this issue.

For more information about the campaign you can download a Don’t let go fact sheet. This has details of the threat to wildlife and more information about fines, the environmental protection act and the Marine Conservation Society.