Ref: PR 2677
Date: 19/07/2010 

Wakefield Council is getting behind Keep Britain Tidy’s campaign (launched today)to clean up England’s streets and save the country more than £3/4 billion pounds a year and will be holding litter roadshows around the district.

Every year, it costs the nation £780 million to pick up litter that does not make it into a bin.

Wakefield Council’s Cabinet Member for Environment and Communities Cllr Olivia Rowley said: “Nationally that’s £2 million a day, 365 days a year – money that could be used for services for the people of Wakefield is instead being used to clear up discarded cigarette ends and fast-food wrappers.

“In Wakefield we spent £4m in the last year alone picking up after people who cannot be bothered to bin their rubbish. We’re tough on those we catch dropping litter – fining people and businesses and even taking them to court if they don’t pay up – but more people need to take responsibility and stop dropping litter and wasting everyone’s money.”

Wakefield Council will be holding roadshows across the district to raise awareness of litter. This will run alongside the Council’s environment education programme in schools and clamp-downs in hot spot litter areas.

Keep Britain Tidy’s latest campaign is calling on everyone to ‘get behind’ its rallying cry to clean up England’s streets.

Keep Britain Tidy’s chief executive Phil Barton said: ‘At a time when government is having to make very difficult choices about spending, it is ridiculous that councils have to devote a significant amount of their budgets to cleaning up their residents’ litter.

‘If everyone would just put their litter in a bin, instead of mindlessly dropping it on the floor, we could save millions of pounds a year – and that money could be used to fund vital services for the whole community.

‘It is time for the silent majority to stand up and say “enough is enough”, get behind Keep Britain Tidy and Wakefield Council and challenge those who think it’s OK to throw their rubbish on the floor – at a cost to the country of £780 million a year.”

Specific dates for the roadshows will be confirmed nearer the time and will include the following:

• August at Thornes Park
• September at South Elmsall
• October at Wakefield city centre precinct
• November at Pontefract
• December at Ossett

ENDS