PICTURE the scene: you go to the park for a picnic, and afterwards you leave behind several piles of food, (some half-eaten, some not even opened), drinks cans, bottles, cartons, toilet roll, wet wipes and plastic bags.

Or you go camping in a rural beauty spot and when you head home, instead of packing up your stuff you simply leave it there - waterproof coats, grubby trainers, a couple of sleeping bags, fold-up chairs, a blow-up mattress and a tent. You can’t be bothered to carry it all, so why not just leave it scattered across the grass, for someone else to clear up?

Most people, I’d like to think, wouldn’t dream of leaving an open space in such a state. So why has it become acceptable for festival sites to be swamped with food waste and discarded camping equipment once revellers have gone home? Thousands of people arrive at festivals with a rucksack full of camping gear and provisions, then dump most of once the party’s over.

Stewards cleared up tons of mess, including thousands of tents, from Leeds and Reading last week. More than 320 tons of waste went to landfill following last year’s festivals.

It’s a common misconception that charities salvage festival sites for discarded tents and sleeping bags which are then passed to the homeless - so by leaving their mess strewn everywhere, privileged party animals can tell themselves they’re actually doing ‘a good thing’. It’s, like, making a donation, right? Not quite. Homeless and environmental charities say many items left at festival sites aren’t fit for re-use, especially if dumped in the rain and mud.

And, if festival-goers are so keen to help folk less fortunate than themselves, why not make the effort to take their discarded camping gear and edible food waste to charity collection points, instead of relying on other people to clear their mess up?

Volunteers at Bradford Metropolitan Food Bank have been salvaging food from Leeds Festival since 2012. Treasurer Keith Thomson calls it “a nightmare”, often complicated by the weather. Speaking about their last collection, in 2017, he said: “We parked in the central area with small tents as far as the eye could see. Some were collapsed, by the owners or staff preparing for tractors moving in to remove all the waste, but you could pick your way through acres and acres of small tents, probably close on 30,000.

“Apart from unpleasant waste in some tents, there would generally be something in most. We were looking for food and non-alcoholic drink, but sleeping bags, towels, clothes and so on were in many tents, with half-open boxes of biscuits, fruit, loaves, snacks, and occasional tins of beans, meat, sweets, soft drinks and a large number of small unopened cereal packets. We probably averaged about 50 large boxes of items over a four or five hour scavenging period, with about five of us involved.”

Keith calls the level of so-called waste - often things that can be eaten, worn or used again in some way - “unacceptable”. “I’m ashamed that we have allowed the younger generation to indulge themselves in this way, producing enormous amounts of extra CO2 and apparently not giving a hoot,” he says. “How can ostensibly intelligent and probably quite highly educated young people just walk away from their tents, clothes, food etc and leave it all for others to clean up?”

Quite. The fact that people don’t think twice about dumping such items is a sad reflection on the disposable age, and on the disregard they appear to have for others.

* Please, spare us from more newsreader cameos

WHEN Angela Rippon emerged from behind a desk and high-kicked her way through a 1976 Morecambe and Wise sketch it was TV gold, because never before had a newsreader been seen in such high jinks.

These days, they turn up on everything from Strictly to TV dramas. The first three episodes of new BBC1 political thriller Bodyguard have featured well-known reporters, anchors and presenters, including Nick Robinson, Sophie Raworth and Radio 4's Today programme host John Humphrys. In one scene, Andrew Marr played himself interviewing Keeley Hawes playing the Home Secretary.

Such self-indulgent cameos are just as cringeworthy as the newsreader song-and-dance routines on Children in Need. Stick to the day job, guys...

* A west coast love affair...on the radio

I RECENTLY returned from a trip to Ireland, where I enjoyed a brief holiday romance...with Midwest Radio.

Driving around glorious County Mayo, I fell in love with the local radio station. From ‘radio bingo’ to mid-morning death notices, its gentle pace and quirky content was a delight. Two chirpy presenters discussed the logistics of setting up the Pope’s microphones at Knock Shrine, moving swiftly on to the sale of a wardrobe in Ballycastle. “Take a break from constipation,” trilled a jolly sponsorship jingle. I could curl up with Midwest Radio all day.