Litter campaign has made a real difference

Wellingborough Council's No Excuses campaign began in January and focused on a different type of littering each month, including cigarette ends, dog fouling, fly tipping, and littering from vehicles, and will have its final public roadshow in the town's Swansgate Centre on Wednesday 15 December from 10.30am-3pm. The campaign highlighted the excuses that people give, such as 'it was so small I didn't realise it was litter' or 'birds will eat my left over food' and the campaign team reinforced the message by organising community litter picks and public roadshows, working with schools, and putting on extra environmental warden patrols.

Throughout the year, the council team brought the campaign to more than 50 events throughout the borough, including parks, garages and supermarkets, and spoke to hundreds of people. They visited seven of the borough's primary schools to get the children involved in the hope that they would take the message home to their families, and after giving assemblies to the children they dressed them up as litter pickers and took them out for community clean ups.

Wendy Mills, the council's amenities development officer, who has been running the campaign said: "I am delighted with the way the campaign has gone throughout the year, and the very positive effect it has had. People are definitely more aware of littering and the problems it causes, especially school children. We planned the campaign to last for a year, but it has been so successful we will definitely carry on with it. We've had an amazing start and we'd really like to continue to take the campaign out and about and work with more schools to promote the message as much as possible.

"We've spoken to people wherever we go and they are really pleased with the action the council is taking. We've spoken to people in parks who are unhappy with irresponsible dog owners not clearing up, and grateful garage owners who are sick of people throwing litter from vehicles. We've handed out free dog waste bags, pouches for cigarette ends and other items to help people clear up after themselves. Our environmental wardens have also issued fixed penalty notices when they've seen people littering. The public do seem genuinely pleased that we have run such a visible campaign to educate about the effects of litter."