Clampdown On Belfast Littering

Dropped litter in the NI capital is being taken increasingly seriously.

Belfast City Council is highlighting its 'Litter - get a grip!' campaign which is to introduce a new clampdown on offenders.

Councillor Pat McCarthy, Chairman of the council's Health and Environmental Services Committee, said: "Litter on our streets is something the general public feel very strongly about and yet too many people will say, 'but it's only a wee butt', or 'it's only a bit of chewing gum'.

"The council's anti-litter campaign is in its sixth year now and research shows that people aged 18-35 are the worst offenders when it comes to dropping litter, as well as smokers.

"There's also the sticky problem of chewing gum on our streets.

"Every year we spend around £11m of ratepayers' money cleaning the city streets. We're all guilty of littering but since we started our anti-litter campaign, we have seen people's habits change for the better so it's important that we keep up the momentum to make Belfast litter-free, and a city we can all be proud of."

Between October 2008 and May this year, 903 litter fines have been issued by Belfast City Council.

Also since October 2008, as part of the council's ongoing community awareness work, more than 80 schools have been visited, with more than 4,000 pupils hearing the anti-litter message.

Earlier this year, 19 primary schools signed up to the Lord Mayor's Big Cleanup Challenge which saw schoolchildren organising community cleanups of their own area.

The latest phase of the council's anti-litter campaign will be backed up by posters and television and radio ads.

Since the campaign started in 2004, the number of people who admit to dropping litter has fallen by almost a fifth (19%).

Council research found that young people (aged 18-35) are the worst offenders when it comes to littering (64%) followed by smokers (60%).

(BMcC/JM)