"Litter Busters" Tackle Fly Tipping and Litter Louts

2.00.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Sat 12th May 2007

Teams of "Litter Busters" are cleaning up "grot spots" in a campaign to bring more fly-tippers and litter louts to court.

Two-people rapid-response teams are dealing with rubbish and fly-tipping grot spots, while also working with enforcement staff to gather evidence to make sure fly-tippers and litter louts are caught.

This is all part of a zero-tolerance campaign to rid the Borough of the menace of litter and fly-tipping that blights the local environment.

Last year Milton Keynes Council wrote warning letters to more than 1,300 people. In addition, 20 fixed-penalty notices were issued for littering offences last year, and a number of people were taken to court and paid fines and court costs of up to £602 each.

Liberal Democrat Councillor Douglas McCall, cabinet member for the environment, said: "The expanded litter buster teams have an important role in making sure our Borough is kept clean. We know that if we remove fly-tipped rubbish quickly, it's less likely that others will dump their rubbish in the same spot.

"Of course, we would rather people obeyed the law and didn't dump rubbish. But if they persist in doing do, we'll use the new Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act to make them pay the penalty. The courts can now fine fly-tippers up to £50,000 and/or impose a five-year prison term."