Name and shame litter louts in Worcester

Calls are being made to make an example of those caught dropping rubbish by releasing their names to the public, with politicians saying they should be ashamed.

Councillor Roger Knight, Worcester’s former bins chief, says it would cause enough embarrassment to make the culprits think twice before hurling litter on the floor.

Despite the city council emptying 1,400 public bins every week, taxpayers fork out £1.25 million a year to keep streets and open spaces clean.

People caught littering can be fined £80, which five people were stung by last year, but at the moment their details are not revealed to the public.

During a fierce council debate on waste, it also emerged:

- Public bins are “constantly” full to bursting because many residents are wrongly dumping household rubbish in them

- Worcester companies have also been caught using the bins for their own commercial waste in a bid to avoid paying someone to take it away

- Not enough residents realise you can report people to the council for dumping rubbish, including drivers hurling it from cars

Coun Knight said: “In Worcester we’ve got hundreds of bins, yet we’ve got a real litter problem - I really don’t think we are hard enough.

“We should say to people ‘you dropped it, you blumin’ well pick it up’ - there has to be a time when we say enough is enough, we will no longer tolerate it.

“It is about education, but it’s also about enforcement - I’d like to see people named and shamed.”

His comments, made during a scrutiny meeting, were widely backed by fellow politicians.

Councillor David Tibbutt said: “I agree, this is the public’s responsibility - just think if people stopped doing this we’d save hundreds of thousands.

“There is an educational element, you see a lot of it near schools - people say ‘you can’t demonise kids’, well I’m sorry, it is about education.”

Councillor Chris Cawthorne said: “I saw someone in St John’s driving with some fish and chips, suddenly down went the window, and all these chips were thrown out.

“I say let’s get the children to educate the adults, make a big thing of it and shame them.”

Councillor Simon Cronin said he saw a driver throw a lemonade can from a car in London Road, took down the number plate and reported it to the council, who fined them.

“You can actually report these things, not enough people realise that,” he said. Councillor Joy Squires said bins were “constantly full”, to which Coun Knight said he once found a load of business waste in one, traced the firm and ticked them off.

The feedback will be sent to the council’s cabinet.