Blackpool wages new litter war

Visitors to St John’s Square were shown how much rubbish is collected from the streets in just a single day.

Fast food wrappers, discarded coffee cups and cigarette ends were among the debris.

This picture illustrates a seventh of the amount collected on a normal day.

Blackpool Council has set aside £24,500 to develop a strategy with Keep Britain Tidy to clean up the streets by 2020.

It hopes to prevent the root causes of litter by working with residents, visitors and businesses to reduce packaging, increase effective litter disposal and encourage social responsibility.

A public consultation has now been launched to gather views of residents on the campaign.

Coun Gillian Campbell, deputy leader of Blackpool Council, said: “Keep Britain Tidy is the national leader in reducing littering and so we’re absolutely delighted to be working in partnership with them.

“We know keeping the streets clean is a huge priority for residents and everyone also knows our resources are diminishing every year meaning we have fewer and fewer staff to tidy up after people.

“Before we launch this campaign it is really important that we find out what the main issues are.

“Discarded cigarette ends, dog waste and fly tipping are all issues that we regularly receive complaints about but we want to know how this is affecting people’s lives and what could be done to resolve it.

“When it is all gathered in one place I think people will be really surprised to see how much litter is dropped every day across Blackpool.”