Woman returns to Welsh hometown and is 'disgusted' by what she finds

A pensioner was left horrified after a nostalgic trip to her hometown of Llandudno in North Wales, shocked by the state of the once pristine resort. Penny Colegate, 68, who now lives in Hampshire, was appalled to find her beloved town "swimming in litter", with cans, bottles and takeaway wrappers strewn across pavements and piled under street furniture.

She expressed her concern that not only was the sight unsightly and a health hazard, but it also threatened Llandudno's tourism appeal. "Seeing the town like this really upset me," said Penny, who reached out to North Wales Live to voice her concerns.

"Llandudno is the premier tourist destination in North Wales and to say it was dirty is an understatement," she added. It was her first trip back to North Wales since moving to Basingstoke 13 years ago in the wake of her ex-husband's death. Penny spent two nights in the town's Travelodge and was looking forward to visiting old haunts, having worked for a while at the David Ormerod Hearing Centre, now part of Boots.

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Penny spent two nights in the town's Travelodge and was looking forward to visiting old haunts, having worked for a while at the David Ormerod Hearing Centre, now part of Boots. She recalled: "As soon as I stepped out of the Travelodge, I saw a side road full of litter that was tumbling towards me in the wind. The whole place was filthy."

"Everywhere there were Coke cans, plastic bottles, serviettes and fast food wrappers. Cigarette butts too. Litter had accumulated in shop doorways and under public benches and it looked to have been there for a goodly period. I moved a glass left in the road so that it didn't hurt anyone, and picked a glass jar from a drain and put it in a bin. Most of those responsible were visitors, I imagine, and it's left the town looking dirty bordering on filthy. "

Llandudno characteristically mirrors other British locales with its litter predicaments. A rise in summer holidaymakers, coupled with a bustling hospitality sector, intensifies these matters.

The town also grapples with windblown debris and the gulls notorious for raiding bins and strewing rubbish across the streets. A cohort of day-to-day street cleaners, alongside dedicated volunteers, spearhead the clean-up initiatives.

Friends of Mostyn Street and their youthful division, FoMS Kidz, recently organised a clean-up in the Mostyn vicinity, with Asda staff and Ysgol Ffordd Dyffryn pupils joining in. Additionally, the U3A, various groups and individuals partake in regular litter collections around the town.

Multiple volunteer-led beach cleaning campaigns are conducted all year round. It can be a thankless task. That’s the impression another visitor got when she arrived in the resort last year. “Just been to Llandudno for the first time in eight years after living there for 45 years,” she wrote online. “Felt sad at how rundown it looked. Happy to be back home in France without the litter and traffic.”

Regular visitors have similar feelings about the place. A Yorkshireman who visits annually has repeatedly posted about Llandudno’s litter. “I just don’t understand why people travel a couple of hours each way to a lovely seaside town and then spoil it,” he said.

“The cost of cleaning this mess up is funded by a council that visitors don’t pay a penny towards. And whilst tourists are good for the local economy, it’s just a shame so many don’t respect your beautiful town like we do.

Another visitor, Penny, from Dyserth, Denbighshire, reflected on her experience during a four-day tour of North Wales. She started in Flint, taking in sights at Holywell, St Asaph, and Bodelwyddan, before making base in Llandudno, which she used as a gateway to explore Anglesey. She noticed that although these places had litter problems, Llandudno's situation was particularly dire. "Most of these places had issues with littering but not on the same scale," she observed. "The situation in Llandudno was appalling."

She proposed a remedy, suggesting a lack of funds for cleanup could be addressed by a visitors' levy: "If the council doesn't have the money, a tourist tax would help pay for extra litter picking. Tourism is Llandudno's lifeblood and if the town doesn't tackle its litter problem, people will stay away. I found it so sad. "

Back in February, a meeting convened in Llandudno to brainstorm solutions to the pervasive litter issue. There's an agreement among locals that while most of the blame falls on tourists, residents too share some of the responsibility; the littering isn't confined to the hubs of tourism.

Still, many remember how “spotless” the resort looked during Covid lockdowns when takeaways were shut and tourists couldn’t visit. Penny was far from pleased with the state of her ex-husband Peter Jones' final resting place when she visited Llangystennin churchyard, accompanied by her nephew from Mochdre. "It used to be immaculate, now it's a disgrace," she remarked. "Where they used to cut between graves and collect the grass, now the place is mowed like a field and the grass left behind.

During her visit, Penny didn't hesitate to voice her concerns to the council, she said: "Don't look up at all of the resort's lovely buildings. Look down at the pavements because that's where all the filth is."

Conwy Council responded firmly to complaints about littering, stating there was "no excuse" for such behaviour. A spokesperson elaborated: "We regularly remind visitors and residents to be responsible with their litter, via our social media accounts and on-site posters. Most people dispose of their litter responsibly, and it's disappointing that there's a minority of people who don't."

The council also highlighted the broader implications of littering: "Littering can have a negative impact on everyone's enjoyment of nature, can be a danger to animals and can pollute our environment. Take all your rubbish home with you, or put it in a bin, and leave no trace of your visit. "