On researching a historical record on a local issue online, I stumbled across this account of a meeting on Housing and Public Health held in Aberdeen and reported in the Press & Journal on May 18th, 1935. I have many, many conversations with residents about litter and hope this piece will be of interest!

“The lessons Scotland had to learn from Continental practice in house-building were given by Mr John Wilson, principal architect of the Department of Health for Scotland.

It might be claimed, he said, that on the whole they had little to learn in internal planning and in the provision of sanitary facilities they were ahead of the Continent as a whole.

Speaking of the upkeep of property, Mr Wilson said one could not but be impressed with the high standard of cleanliness of the tenants and their children.

We are not a tidy nation, and one wonders how the beautiful courtyards of the Viennese schemes or the Siedlung Britz of Berlin would be kept if transplanted to Scotland. How is it that in the surroundings of our houses and in the countryside we are so often indifferent to litter lying about?

There was much better discipline among the children abroad than at home, and it was obvious in all large schemes in Scotland a uniformed caretaker was necessary if outside amenity was to be observed.

The Continental people seemed to have a strong sense of house pride which was well worth emulating, though it is only fair to state that in many of Scotland’s slum clearance schemes many of the tenants had reacted well to the new conditions.

Declaring that the squares in Berlin were kept much cleaner than they were in this country, Mr J Norval said that if one threw away a cigarette box or match box in Berlin there was a hand on one’s shoulder and a note demanding two marks. So there you are, he said, amid laughter.”