While I have enormous pride in this great country of ours, particularly its scenic beauty and achievements, I cannot, in all honesty, say the same about my fellow countrymen who seem hell-bent on turning it into a giant refuse tip.

In fact, I am all too often ashamed to be British when I see how people so uncaringly despoil our great urban and stunning rural areas. Towns and countryside are awash with litter and graffiti and, what is so sad, no one seems to care.

Vandals who are too idle to visit their local recycling centre tip car-loads of rubbish in the country, motorists chuck all manner of refuse out of vehicle windows and fast food addicts dump their empty bags and cartons wherever they stand, thus giving prime locations a seedy and run-down appearance.

Local authorities seem unable or unwilling to cope with the mess and none more so than Brighton and Hove City Council. Meanwhile, the police do nothing about the fly-tippers and litter-louts. Is this something to do with priorities or lack of resources?

My biggest embarrassment is when we take visitors from abroad into Brighton or along the country lanes to see the sights - what a sight they see.

If our householders were made responsible for the pavement and road directly outside their properties, as in other European countries, the environment would become a great deal cleaner and the culture of littering would decrease. I am always picking up rubbish in my area and am sure my neighbours think I'm eccentric.

To make matters worse, our binmen went on a 48-hour unofficial walkout last week and only went back to work when told they would not be paid for the lost time and that agency stuff would be called in to clear the backlog.

Cityclean quite rightly said they would not pay catch-up so the binmen decided to work to rule and refused to do the missed rounds. Why couldn't the council use agency staff, as threatened, to clear the backlog instead of leaving it piled up on the streets for a week?

Mark Turner, the branch secretary of the binmen's union, the GMB, said the public supported this unofficial strike even though the GMB had not backed it.

What claptrap. I have spoken to dozens of people who have seen their uncollected refuse ripped open by gulls, foxes and cats and, without exception, they have no sympathy for the binmen or Cityclean.

We pay more every year for an increasingly inadequate service.

The environment gets dirtier and the police are noticeable by their inaction. It doesn't surprise me some brave people are risking imprisonment for refusing to pay part of their council tax.

Without a complete change of direction by the council and the Government, we seem destined as a nation gradually to degenerate to the environmentally chaotic levels of a developing country.

I hope I am not around to witness that.

-John Morris, Woodingdean