Plastic ‘callously’ discarded alongside Cambridgeshire guided busway

Tiny pieces of non-biodegradable plastic were “callously” dumped on the guided busway footpath after work to install LED solar lights was completed.

The temporary plastic fittings had been used to ensure the new lights stayed in place while the adhesive hardened.

But when workers removed the fittings, they were snapped off and left to “litter the entirety of the busway”.

Resident Ben Cann, who witnessed the contractors removing the fittings and leaving them on the busway, said: “They are non-biodegradable and there must be many hundreds of them in the environment now. I’m slightly flabbergasted that this has been allowed to happen.

“Either the council, or the contractors they’ve used, have just polluted the entirety of this pathway with this plastic. In the era of microplastic pollution awareness this seems callous.”

A Cambridgeshire County Council spokesperson said the area had now been cleared of any remaining clips: “Thank you to the member of public for bringing this to our attention. This fails to meet the standards we expect and we’re disappointed the clips were discarded in this manner.

“We’ll be picking this up with our contractor to ensure it doesn’t happen again. In the meantime we have swept the path, which runs alongside the busway, to make sure any remaining clips have been collected.”