Half of England's councils can't keep their streets free of litter

Daily Mail 23rd September 2008

More than half of England's councils are unable to keep their streets free of litter, according to a government-commissioned study.

Researchers found that 187 council areas were blighted by 'unsatisfactory' levels of litter.

That means most residents would consider there to be a problem with street rubbish, and some would complain to the council about it.

Street of shame: More than half of England's councils are unable to keep their streets free of litter, a government-commissioned report found

Only one council, Kennet in Wiltshire, was considered to have a 'good' standard of hygiene.

The three worst-performing councils, which were labelled 'poor', were Sandwell in the West Midlands, Knowsley in Liverpool and Wigan.

Litter is still endemic even though new powers to control it were handed to councils in the 2005 Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act.

These include onthe-spot fines of up to £70.

The survey of all 353 district councils in England was carried out by the Keep Britain Tidy Campaign for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs between April 2006 and March 2008.

The report found that all councils were judged to have fly-tipping and graffiti under control. Cigarette butts are the most common litter found on the streets followed by sweet wrappers, drinks cartons and fast food packaging.

Phil Barton, chief executive of Keep Britain Tidy, said: 'The results of this report show that more needs to be done to tackle the problem of litter in this country.

Clearly the levels of litter nationwide-are unacceptable.' A spokesman-for Keep Britain Tidy called for more action from councils.

He said: 'There are laws in place enabling local authorities to issue on-the-spot fines.

'We would like to see more people fined for plaguing our streets with pizza boxes, cans, crisps and cigarette butts. But ultimately fining is just one way of getting the message across.'

Earlier this month, Keep Britain Tidy launched The Big Tidy Up - a month-long litter blitz - to try to clean up the country.

Last year, councils spent more than £600million cleaning up the parks, roads and countryside.

They also issued a record number of fines for littering, the worst areas being Manchester, Southwark and Nottingham.

Environment Minister Jonathan Shaw told a newspaper: 'It's not just down to our local authorities - everyone has a part to play in keeping our streets clean - there's much more we can all do to cut down on litter.

'I hope this information will also encourage people to think more carefully about how they treat their local environment.'

Reports on litter in five remaining council areas - Barnet, Redbridge, Southend, North Norfolk and Maldon - should be published by the end of the year.

A spokesman for the Local Government Association said: 'This sort of survey is important to bring these issues into the public consciousness, and help councils make the streets better for local people.

'Most people take pride in their surroundings, but councils must continue to crack down on the minority of people who spoil the area for everyone else. On-the-spot fines are one way of doing this.'

UK Lockdown point of view
It's no surprise to see that even the smallest of issues is being used to piggyback the EU police state agenda, it won't be long before 50 percent of the population work for the government and the other 50 percent pay their wages through non stop fines & charges, littering is a serious issue and should be treated seriously, and should not be used as a revenue raising method, why not force the corporate parasites to use less unnecessary packaging on their products and put out more bins in places where they are needed like outside takeaway shops ?