PUTTING muscle where their mouths are, three Worcester city councillors will roll up their sleeves on Sunday and spring-clean a filthy Nunnery Wood footpath.

Mike Layland, Mike Francis and Stan Knowles hope they can finish the task in one day. We hope so too, but we're not that optimistic.

As we've bemoaned on too many occasions in recent years, the frustrating thought about their self-set challenge is that the problem need never happen in the first place.

That was the case when pensioner Bella McGreavy tackled the scruffy streets of Tolladine 30 months ago, and, in doing so, highlighted how slovenly so many people were.

That was the case, 12 months on, when Councillor Gary Kibblewhite borrowed a city council litter-picker and began cleaning up part of his Bedwardine ward because he was fed up watching rubbish accumulate.

That was the case a year later, when workers from the Duckworth Trust were called in to remove graffiti from the wall of Worcester's historic Civil War Commandery centre.

Mike Layland fears that anyone telling litter-droppers to "pick it up" will receive a mouthful of abuse back.

But he reckons we all have a duty to stand up to the tiny-minded minority who can find the brain power to throw insults, but struggle to locate a bin. How right he is.

Let's be honest, though. The tons of rubbish dropped in Worcester every year don't come from morons alone.

Who among us hasn't been tempted to add a sweet-wrapper to a footpath already carpeted by refuse?

The moral high ground belongs only to those who've never succumbed to such laziness.

The people of the Faithful City deserve whatever environment they have.

If we want that to be spotless, every man, woman and child must make a commitment to keep the streets litter-free - and to shop those we see doing the opposite.