I WISH to comment on the subject of roadside 'shrines' that are appearing all over the place.

What happened to people putting tributes and flowers on graves? Instead, we see bunches of flowers strapped to lampposts and other paraphernalia on street corners. I think that if people really want to create these tacky tributes, then the families should have to seek permission from the council to erect them and be responsible for the clear up afterwards.

I see them as a self indulgent legal form of littering and a form of graffiti that uses grief as an excuse to litter the pavement and street corners with football memorabilia (whatever team the deceased supported) and whatever other tat makes people feel better about leaving on a street corner.

My dad used to ride his bicycle from Parr every Sunday morning to St Oswald's in Ashton, and I would follow him on my bicycle and he would spend all afternoon tending the graveside of his mother and I would go and fetch the water for the flowers and it was a fitting tribute. However, it would seem that people cannot be bothered with reverently tending cemeteries anymore and would rather indulge in yet another tacky morbid and tasteless American tradition that seems to have infiltrated our once respectable and tasteful British culture.

If people feel that they need to do this kind of thing, then I respect that, but I think that permission should be sought beforehand and that after two weeks they should be fined by the council for the price of clean up if the decayed flowers and weathered football shirts/teddy bears/posters etc are not cleared away.

P McCann, Newton-le-Willows (full address supplied)