Loads of litter after grass being cut

Updates

• Thank you for contacting National Highways about litter.

  We regard litter as a significant issue, and we share your concerns about the amount of rubbish discarded on our roads. Cyclical maintenance is our yearly cycle of works. We aim to clear every location of litter at least once per year. These activities are planned and inspected in accordance with: • The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs’ Code of practice for litter and refuse • GM701 Highways Asset delivery & maintenance requirements • GS801 Highway Asset delivery & asset inspection requirements

  We manage an extensive road network across the south of England and when specific litter hotspots are identified as a recurring problem, we’ll initiate additional work outside our cyclic maintenance to instruct our maintenance partners to prioritise clearing those sections of our network if it exceeds the levels outlined by the Defra Code of Practice system (Grades A to D).

  Littering by people is, unfortunately, a behaviour that has a big impact on some parts of our roads. We aim to keep our roads as tidy and free of litter where possible. Our litter picking is carefully planned to try to minimise the impact it has on road users and the safety of our people.

  Litter picks often require lane closures, which are disruptive to traffic flow. To help reduce the frequency of this disruption, where we can, we usually combine our reactive litter picks with other maintenance work which can result in what appears to be a delayed response.

  Our local inspector has inspected junction 2 of the M2 and has raised remedial works to be carried out on sections of Junction 2 of the M2 by our maintenance partners These works are currently outstanding and are subject to the necessary authority to close sections of the network in phases. Unfortunately, we do not currently have a timeframe for when the works will be completed; however, we hope to undertake them as soon as it's possible.

  We appreciate your patience and understanding

  Kind regards

  National Highways

  State changed to: Closed

  Posted by National Highways at 12:08, Friday 2 October 2026