It is very difficult not to be utterly despairing at the quite dreadful mess being left in and around our waterways by stupid and irresponsible people. The experience captured by one reader of this newspaper on a visit to a section of the Grand Union Canal as it runs through Abbey Park is just the tip of an iceberg of refuse that threatens to swamp those trying to clean it up.

The photographs taken by Emma Mani show a whole range of discarded rubbish blighting the banks, hanging in trees and generally spoiling what should be one of Leicester's prettiest spots.

The reaction of the city council's riverside rangers, who are self-appointed collectors of this sort of waste, is desperately sad.

They point out this is just a small part of the problem and that even if a big, one-off clean up was organised, the problem would return immediately.

They reckon they are collecting around four cubic metres of discarded rubbish from the Abbey Park site every week.

What seems particularly daft is that no one organisation has the legal responsibility for clearing rubbish from the river. If it is causing pollution the Environment Agency must step in. If it is blocking the waterway then British Waterways have to turn up to remove it and restore the flow of water.

What beggars belief is that it seems no one needs to get involved if the rubbish is simply causing a horrible unsightly mess.

Clearly something needs to be done. It is not practical for the city council to find the extra resource needed to end the problem, so we suggest approaches be made at the highest level to clarify who should be cleaning up and, if the answer really is 'no one', then there needs to be a change of legislation.

Rivers and canals run all over England. It appears this is a problem that needs solving not just for Leicester, but for the country.