My wife and I have been coming to Goa for over 20 years, in fact counting the number of stamps in my current and previous 10 year passports, we have been here 65 times.

Only recently have we, having retired, stayed for a whole season. We have seen many changes through the years. This season we have seen the biggest change in the cleanliness of the beaches. The cleaners have to be commended on doing a fabulous, thankless job. The introduction of metallic fixed dustbins on most stretches is welcomed and way overdue, but why are they not on all stretches?

Almost every day we walk up or down the beach, from Benaulim to either past Colva, or South past Varca. Every day we pick up pieces of glass, but recently fewer and fewer. Nevertheless, broken glass on the beach is lethal. All too often it’s the drunken Indians, and not just from outside of Goa, I’ve seen them launch their empty bottles into the sand or into the sea.

The fishermen themselves are guilty of this, as in previous years I’ve been out fishing with them, rowing the boats and hand pulling the nets in with them for hours on end, and loved every minute. Many times they’d take a bottle of Whiskey or Brandy, drink it between them and launch the empty bottle overboard with or without the top screwed back on. Not an ounce of respect for the environment that makes them an ever decreasing living.

The same goes for the sides of the roads and fields, there is rubbish thrown everywhere. Such a beautiful state is Goa, but it is absolutely filthy.

When I talk to locals, they are all too ready to blame tourists, both Indian and European. It is not Europeans, it is mainly the Goans. I have been riding my scooter behind local cars and suddenly a bag full of rubbish is just hauled out of a car window without a care in the world. Rubbish and plastic bags are everywhere and it’s getting worse.

In England, all plastic bags are now chargeable, and it’s cut drastically the amount of plastic bags that are now used. Why not do this in India? You wouldn’t see many scattered about then, because people would not pay for them. I commend the people who make a living collecting the plastic water bottles that are thrown at the roadsides in their hundreds of thousands if not millions. What would it be like if it wasn’t for the plastic bottle collectors?

Being a European, I am educated to put rubbish in a bin and not throw it, regardless of which country I am in.

When you dedicate a whole newspaper to ‘letters to the editor’ I could perhaps write about the world’s most corrupt Police. The level of deaths due to the horrendous driving and the terrible roads; the rip-off Taxi drivers who are a law unto themselves and laugh in the face of the law.

And just what is it going to take before someone does something about the ever increasing amount of fearsome stray dogs that roam the beaches, the towns and villages?

Is it going to be a toddler being ripped to pieces by them before someone stands up and says enough is enough? Rant over, but Goa wake up, you’re moving too slow. We’ll hopefully continue to come back to Goa as the weather suits us people with bad joints, but I’d like to see progress much faster.