Stepping up the dirty fight against litter (From Dorset Echo)

Stepping up the dirty fight against litter

New steps to fight the litterbugs are proposed in a report out today.

CLEAN IT UP: Bill Bryson is chairman of the Campaign to Protect Rural England, which is suggesting the creation of a national anti-littering body

The amount of rubbish dropped annually has shot up by 500 per cent since the 1960s, leaving authorities with an estimated £500 million cleaning bill, according to the Campaign to Protect Rural England and Think Tank Policy Exchange.

Bill Bryson, chairman of the CPRE and former Daily Echo sub-editor, said the Stop the Drop campaign showed that to tidy up Britain it was necessary to stop litter being dropped and ensure dropped litter gets picked up.

“We must build civic pride in clean and tidy environments, with communities competing to be spotless,” he said.

“Only then can we stop the exasperating and routine vandalism of a country so rich in natural, cultural and built heritage.”

The report suggests creating a national body to co-ordinate anti-littering initiatives, campaigns and programmes, introducing a bottle deposit scheme similar to America, designing public spaces to minimise litter and littering behaviour, and getting local authorities to apply greater consistency to applying littering penalties.

Responding to the report, councillor Robert Lawton, Bournemouth council’s cabinet member for environment and economy, said the council had handed out 209 fixed penalty notices since February 2008 for environmental offences.

“Officers work in teams and use the Body Cam to gather evidence. Our officers have detected a marked improvement in public behaviour when faced with the body cam approach.”

In addition to day-to-day street cleansing, a late-night cleaning service includes litter picks, bin emptying and trade waste collection service in five areas, from 4pm till midnight, seven nights a week.

The Borough of Poole said high profile campaigns targeted dropping cigarettes and chewing gum, and the council uses a combination of education and enforcement to reduce littering.

Cllr Don Collier, cabinet portfolio holder for the environment, said: “These initiatives, plus the installation of 300 new dual recycling bins across the borough, have resulted in great improvements at previous litter hotspots such as the High Street and Ashley Road, thanks to greater public awareness.”