Sir – Every year, especially in autumn and winter, West Oxfordshire District Council needs prompting to comply with the law regarding the removal of litter from both urban and rural roads.

Last year, I had to phone the council five times to complain about litter strewn along the stretches of road between Charlbury and Witney and between White Oak Green, Crawley and Burford Road in Witney.

Each time it was “logged”, but it wasn’t until I threatened the council with a litter abatement order that action was taken.

The current litter problem is as bad, and getting worse by the week.

The system of boxing plastics, paper, etc, and having them emptied weekly by a contractor has contributed to the problem.

Some of the litter escapes the lorries that carry the recycled items and some of it gets blown out of the boxes before and during collection.

The irony of this situation is that European Union rules force councils to reduce landfill under penalty of heavy fines.

The result is that we get litter filling the land on top – the roadsides, ditches, hedges and fields.

So a law intended to help our environment is actually doing it harm.

Surely the present system is not working and another solution to the problem needs to be sought.

J Breen, Walkers Height, Finstock