GRUMPY Old Woman (Letters, July 28) commented on the abundance of litter, namely beer cans.

If all these beer cans were collected by schoolchildren, they would not only be educated into not depositing litter, but also that beer cans are the raw material for Spitfires. Thus they would be learning the history of their country.

It would be interesting to know how many cans it would take to build a full-size Spitfire, which could be suspended over the Itchen Bridge, which of course, was near its birthplace. Mrs H A Edmonds (Letters, July 28) would then get her wow factor.

Titanic already has a beautiful memorial in Above Bar, which I believe received a spruce up and maintenance overhaul quite recently. If enough beer cans are recovered I feel sure a company would melt them down free of charge and turn them back into aluminium, which of course, can then be used to make a Spitfire.

If this idea ever got off the ground, we could build several Spitfires and have one on the main roads into Southampton?

J CARR, Totland Bay, Isle of Wight.