Councils issued a record number of fines for littering last year and collected nearly £1 million, an investigation by The Times has found.

Since 2003 the number of penalties has soared by more than 300 per cent as local authorities have intensified their efforts to reduce the amount of litter on the streets.

Four years ago just 7,565 fines were meted out to litter bugs. By 2005-06 this figure had risen to 33,033. Councils argue that penalties are necessary to deter persistent litter louts.

Councillor Paul Bettison, chairman of the Local Government Association’s environment board, said: “People in England drop millions of tonnes of litter every year. It costs the council taxpayer more than £600 million a year to clear up this rubbish, and this is money that would be better spent on other services like schools and care for the elderly.

“Litter dropping is by far the biggest environmental crime councils have to deal with. Local authorities strive to keep our towns and cities clean and tidy and will not tolerate people dropping rubbish.

“Councils are using our new powers to get tough on the minority of people who spoil the local area for the rest of the community. Fines and on-the-spot penalties help make sure council tax is kept down and the environment protected.”

Fines are likely to increase over the next few years as councils exercise their right to impose £80 fines on people caught dropping litter. The maximum £80 penalty was introduced in April 2006, up from the previous limit of £50. Anyone issued with an on-the-spot fine has 14 days to pay or face court action.

Of all the councils contacted by The Times, Southwark, in South London, levied the most penalties. The council collected more than £70,000 in the 2005-06 financial year. Next on the list was Leeds, which took nearly £65,000 in litter fines, followed by Westminster with £58,250.

A spokesman for the London Councils’ organisation said: “These fines are not to generate revenue. They sit alongside a raft of other measures designed to help improve the local environment for residents. Their purpose is to modify behaviour.”

Local authorities are under pressure from the Government to improve street cleanliness, with annual borough assessments performed by independent organisations such as ENCAMS (which stands for Environmental Campaigns), the charity which runs the Keep Britain Tidy campaign.

In London the Capital Standards programme was introduced five years ago to improve the environment. It is a collaboration between a number of London authorities.

Alan Woods, chief executive of Keep Britain Tidy, said: “As with other areas of the country, London has had a persistent litter problem for a number of years which is being addressed by the Capital Standards programme. It’s really important that those who live or work in London continue to do their bit by binning their rubbish.”

Independent cleanliness assessment reports across London boroughs showed that on the whole measures to reduce litter were working. The reports, published by the Audit Commission, show that from 2003 the proportion of London that is deemed to be unclean has been reduced by an average of 15 per cent.

The offence of “Leaving Litter” is described by the Environmental Protection Act (1990) as to “drop, throw, deposit or leave anything so as to cause defacement in a public place”.

Christine Melsom, founder of the IsItFair council tax protest group, said: “I can’t believe the number of young people who throw things on the ground. Somebody has to pay to clean that up and that person is the taxpayer. I have no sympathy with people who are fined, if they litter, then they must pay for it.”

Lisa Rajan, Southwark Council’s executive member for environment, said: “We spend about £20 million a year keeping the streets and housing estates clean. That’s a lot of money and it means we won’t tolerate people dropping litter.

“Our residents have repeatedly told us that they want our streets to be cleaner and greener. A recent MORI residents’ poll said cleaning up our streets should be the council’s number one priority. So we take our environmental responsibilities very seriously.”

The mess we’re in

— Keep Britain Tidy says that 122 tonnes of cigarette butts, matches and cigarette-related litter is dropped each day in Britain

— 91 per cent of litter on the street is from pedestrians and people throwing rubbish out of vehicles

— There are 50,000 fly-tipping incidents a year, costing £100 million— £150 million to clean up

Source: ENCAMS, runs the Keep Britain Tidy campaign

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