Litter louts strike at Life for a Life memorial

LITTER . . . at Dovestone Reservoir in a picture taken by the RSPB

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HEARTBROKEN families have hit out at disrespectful litter louts who have been using a beautiful memorial garden at Dovestone Reservoir as a "party hangout".

A warm bank holiday weekend saw people flock to Dovestone but some revellers had a barbecue in a memorial garden and left all their rubbish behind.

The Life for a Life memorial park at Dovestone is a scheme which involves the planting of a memorial tree or trees, installing memorial benches and memorial plaques to commemorate loved ones. The aim is for there to be a peaceful place for people to remember their loved ones but this May bank holiday a "heartbreaking" mess has been left behind.

Local woman Jessica Jane and her mother visited the garden, where her father has been since 2003, to find a disgusting and disrespectful mountain of rubbish, including disposable barbecues and food wrappers.

One of the memorial benches was used as a stand for the disposable barbecues.

Jessica, who picked up the rubbish with her mum, said: "This garden is here for the purpose of remembering loved ones, and many trees have the ashes of people's passed loved ones buried within the roots of the trees, hence the 'life for a life' as the nutrients in the ashes give life to sapling trees. To see this beautiful and peaceful garden used as a party hangout, and for the rubbish to be left just carelessly around is, quite frankly, heartbreaking.

"These plots were picked by family members as Dovestones is the perfect spot for quiet reflection and the area itself may have meant a lot to the people who now rest there.

"It is a blessing to our community to have such stunning places open for public use, but it needs highlighting that this garden must be used only with respect. It took me and my mum less than ten minutes to fill two bin liners. I dread to think about the impact on local wildlife if this amount of rubbish is regularly left there."

Jessica took her upset to social media where many others shared her outrage.

Olivia Grace said: "Well done and thank you Jess. We have a tree there for lost loved ones. The lack of respect people have is disgusting."

Marie Wibberley said: "I really can't understand why people come to enjoy a day in such a beautiful place and then leave it in this state."

Anne Moseley said: "Thanks for doing the clean up. My husband's ashes are under a tree there. So it is upsetting to see that such a beautiful area is being desecrated by mindless/thoughtless vandalism."

Jessica has also suggested that a public campaign might be needed to improve the overall cleanliness of Dovestone.

She added: "This has really annoyed and upset me. Instead of just complaining about it I'd like to create awareness in the community that this area deserves our respect and is not a place to be used for parties.

"If there was anyway to publicly run a campaign on keeping all of Dovestone tidy and family friendly this summer, I know many Saddleworth residents would be very pleased.

"There are other issues at the site such as lack of bins, dog poo and people using it as a hangout to get drunk, but if we start with baby steps we could make it a family friendly destination for all again - I know many local Saddleworth residents avoid it like the plague on warm weekends due to the increase in drunks, dogs not on collars, parties and litter that occurs up there.

"A positive campaign on keeping it tidy and safe would make a world of difference."