LIKE many people, the scourge of litter is my pet hate and I am constantly annoyed about it defacing our streets, verges and countryside.

I can therefore only applaud those councillors who are planning to introduce tougher penalties for litter droppers.

Certainly, the advent of fast food establishments is one reason for this explosion of litter, and they should be forced to pay for, or contribute a special tax, specifically to address this problem.

If you took all the hamburger boxes and chip wrappers out of the litter equation, it would be far less of a problem.

However, I think it is more fundamental than that, and think it is vital that we consider measures of prevention as well as cure.

As a school child in the 1970s, I was taught how wrong it was to litter. Consequently I know that I, and many of my contemporaries had it so ingrained in us during our formative years that we would now find it impossible to ever drop litter.

I would be interested to know whether the subject of litter prevention is even tackled in our infants and junior schools anymore.

A SIMPSON (Mrs),

Kempsey,

Worcestershire.