Why is the Garden of England becoming the rubbish dump of Britain?

Drive along any of our roads and you will be appalled by the amount of litter strewn along the verges.

This isn’t just mindless fly-tipping. Much of it has been dumped by drivers too lazy to put their rubbish in a bin or take it home.

There are beer cans, plastic bottles, old rags and tonnes of paper just left to be blown about by the wind.

What must visitors to our once beautiful county think as they drive along the roads?

It’s a sorrowful indictment that Kent, the gateway to Europe, looks such a mess.

It is the first and last thing visitors see when they arrive or leave England.

Here at the KM Group - which includes KentOnline, kmfm and our sister newspapers - we think enough is enough.

We are fed up covering stories about how dirty Kent is.

We are proud of our county and think it is time everyone played a part in keeping it clean.

It is not just a case of spending hundreds of thousands of pounds a year cleaning up the mess; the real battle is convincing everyone that leaving litter in the first place is just not acceptable.

There are many worthy projects, mostly led by volunteers, which have been set up to keep individual areas clean.

But we believe it is time to tackle the problem county-wide, which is why this week we are launching our Clean Up Kent campaign.

For the next five weeks we intend to highlight the “grot spots” of the county, with your help.

We want to discover who is responsible and let everyone understand the deadly effects rubbish can have on our communities and roadside wildlife.

We will be meeting the people who have to clean up after the litter-bugs and find out what happens to the rubbish they collect.

This week we will also be asking youngsters to help devise a poster to lead our campaign.

But most of all, we need your support to Clean Up Kent. Please join us by emailing jnurden@thekmgroup.co.uk

Our campaign coincides with the Great British Spring Clean. To find out where your local event is, click here.

Read more: All the latest news from Kent