Pollution in and around the canal has reached an appalling level in my "patch".

I live in Maida Vale and enjoy canal walking between Little Venice and Paddington Basin. I also like the stretch between Westbourne Park and Ladbroke Grove (where I often do my shopping in the large Sainsbury's there).

Some places, such as the immediate vicinity of Little Venice and Paddington Basin are reasonably clean. Merchant Square (by St Mary' hospital) is privately owned and spotless.

However.... if you start at Little Venice and walk westwards, you see a growing garbage problem. Piles of it, including full garbage bags on top of each other, staying there for weeks or longer. This is not only "ordinary" litter, but people using the towpath to drop their household refuse. It looks terrible and is, of course, an open invitation to rats.

Groups of volunteers (not only in my neck of the woods) often get together to pick the garbage up, and put it in bags for collection. I applaud them, but it's a long canal and they can only organise their "litter pick" days on a local level. When they do it takes only a few weeks for the piles of garbage to reappear.

Yesterday for instance I was walking towards Ladbroke Grove. The garbage was everywhere and it would have been tedious to photograph every pile. But I'm attaching two pictures showing the problem, one just before the bridge over Ladbroke Grove, and one at the foot of the bridge itself.

A second problem is graffiti, which can be large areas of wall covered in daubings, or just "tags" - I understand the latter are often gang related. We see bridges, 19th century wrought iron, having been repainted blue with gold coloured paint along the edges, covered in this muck.

Take, for instance, the Wedlake (aka "Halfpenny") bridge. Repainted in blue, with gold etc. Not long ago some devoted people spent time cleaning things up. And cleaning the column showing a local map, that was covered in graffiti. I enclose a photo of what it looks like today. Their efforts have been wasted. The sad truth is that ANY clear surface is an invitation to graffiti/tags.

I could go on.... but now: to the third major problem. It probably doesn't come under the heading of "pollution" but it has a significant effect on life on the towpath. I refer to inconsiderate cyclists. Almost every time I've been on a towpath walk, on several occasions I've see cyclists speed past me (in lycra etc), and most of the time I hadn't heard them coming. This is NOT acceptable, and is, of course, dangerous.

Firstly, cyclists should signal their approach, by sounding a bell. Secondly, they should be going at a moderate pace. The towpath is NOT a public thoroughfare: if they're in a hurry they should use the road.

Thirdly, pedestrians have priority: they should not expect us to move out of their way. From time to time I hear a bell or a voice saying "coming behind you" or something similar, then I see a cyclist or two go past at a leisurely pace: these are the considerate ones. Alas, yesterday for instance i was overtaken by about a dozen cyclists, only two were in that category.

All this has already diminished the quality of life around the canal, and it's getting worse.

The Canal and Rivers Trust (CRT) are a charity and there are probably limits to what they can do. In all their leaflets with attractive picture of the canal, not one shows a graffiti or pile of garbage. I wonder why. Why not have some pictures of the real situation? Why not "Welcome to the canal, sorry about the piles of garbage and the graffiti, sorry if you have to dodge speeding cyclists"... If the CRT can't stop the deterioration, then they should say so openly.

I can't say that I know of any solution to these problems. But it's not my responsibility, I'm not in charge, and they are. And if they can't take action soon....

Where would I start? By tackling the main root of the problem, which is, of course, impunity. When is the last time you heard of anyone being fined? The culprits know that they can act as they like, because they're more or less guaranteed to get away with it.