Points for litter louts

Litter lout drivers should face points on their licence if rubbish is dropped from their car, according to campaign group Keep Britain Tidy (KBT).

Punishing drivers should be made easier, say KBT, who want a fine, along with the penalty point, imposed on car owners who allow litter to be dropped from their car.

Phil Barton, KBT's chief executive, said: 'Our research shows that the best deterrent to stop motorists littering is points on their licence, community service and a large fine - in that order.'

Nearly 2000 bags of rubbish dumped each day
Over 700,000 bags of rubbish are collected from England's roads each year, according to KBT, with cigarette butts, drinks cartons and fast food packaging the most collected items.

Figures from the Highways Agency show:
Along a six-mile stretch of the M3 motorway near London (between junctions 1 and 2), workers collected 189 refuse bags of litter in one night during planned maintenance work. This was around a tonne of rubbish.
On 34 miles of the M1 between junction 24 and junction 30 in the East Midlands, roughly 2500 refuse bags of litter are collected each year.
* In the North West, in the first six months of this year, just over 32,100 refuse bags of rubbish were collected from Highways Agency roads.

And finally
Some of the stranger items of rubbish collected from England's roads by the Highways Agency include:
A bathtub
A hot tub
Ladders
A pantomime horses head
Theatrical curtains
A complete greenhouse