MK Today - Friday 24th March 2023

How many live in Milton Keynes ?

It’s about a quarter of a million isn’t it ?

I’m not talking people, I am talking lives. There are twenty-two million trees in the City of Milton Keynes, how many birds, how many insects live in a tree ?

A single oak tree can shelter one hundred and forty-seven birds and the same oak can shelter two hundred and eighty insects.

147 + 280 = I don’t need a calculator for that ! 147 + 280 = 427

Now four hundred and twenty seven multiplied by twenty-two million. 

Where is that calculator ?

427 x 22,000,000 = 9,394,000,000 !

Are you old enough to remember the time when you had to clean the dead insects from your car’s windscreen ? It’s not a case of insects have learned the Green Cross Code and so no longer splatter themselves on cars, in the last twenty years our insect population has declined by SIXTY percent.

Around 7% of the population use vapes. 7% of quarter of a million people living in Milton Keynes equals 17,500. How many of these drop their empty vapes on the ground ?

Taking part in the RSPCA litter pick this week Doggie Barnaby and I have found that vapes are the number one item of rubbish we collect.

Vapes contains nicotine, which is toxic to wildlife. There are potentially other ingredients in vape juice that are aerosolized and can also be problematic for animals. Not to mention, elements such as THC, propylene glycol, and even formaldehyde can carry their own toxic

risks. That’s what Mr Google says.

The second biggest item in our RSPCA litter pick are empty cigarette packets. A packet of twenty cigarettes following the recent budget cost £14.39. NOT ENOUGH ! Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer £114,39 would be better.

How much can a littering criminal be fined ? YES, dropping litter including vapes and cigarettes is a criminal offence ?  Mr Google can you please answer that question for us.

Dropping litter is illegal. People who drop litter can be fined or face prosecution in court. Authorised officers have the power to issue a fixed penalty charge of up to £150 for a litter offence, as an alternative to prosecution. If the offender is prosecuted and convicted in court, the fine could rise to £2,500.

I keep speaking about this but Milton Keynes is a scruffy city. Litter is disgusting. I was riding in a taxi along Fulmer Street last week when the driver had to negotiate a pile of litter in the middle of the road. If he hadn’t then we could both have ended up in hospital.

Where is the hospital for the insects, the butterflies and birds who are victims of Milton Keynes litter ?

What’s a cuckoo ? No I am not talking about a drug dealer taking over a property, I am speaking about the bird whose unique song was always a sign of spring. The cuckoo bird is not extinct worldwide but you will not find one in England. How long before the sparrow, the robin, thrush and blackbird are extinct ?

Depends how quickly the mentality of the litter buggers can throw down that which they do.

Milton Keynes likes to think it is a green city. Exclude Central Milton Keynes and it is. We have some beautiful parkland, lakes and of course twenty-two million trees. However, Milton Keynes is NOT biodiverse. Not never no way. Litter buggers are responsible for such.

Another question. How many prisoners can be accommodated at Woodhill Milton Keynes ? Just over eight hundred. Can we please have a massif building programme to make room for all those who drop litter on the streets of our city, drop litter and harm our city’s biodiversity.