DRIVE-through takeaways could be told to print car registration numbers on their packaging in a bid to tackle littering in Bradford.

It is one of the more “innovative approaches” suggested by Bradford Council as it looks to change behaviour of litter louts in the district.

Others could include creating crime scenes around dumped litter, and carrying out door to door enquiries to find the culprits.

But the push has been greeted with some scepticism.

From April Bradford Council will be cutting around £1 million from its street cleaning budget, leading to 28 staff and five mechanical sweepers being lost.

It will lead to drastic changes in how Bradford’s streets are cleaned.

Officers accused of 'holding gun to Councillors' heads' over street cleaning cuts

At a recent meeting of the Bradford West Area Committee, members were told that there would be a big push to change people’s behaviour so they were less likely to drop litter in the first place. And this push will include new efforts to reduce the amount of take away litter like polystyrene boxes and plastic cutlery, that ends up on the district’s streets.

The changes would make it easier for officers to find out who is responsible for dropping litter.

A report into the cuts said changes could include forcing take-aways to use branded packaging to make it easier to find the source of waste littering the streets, asking them not to hand out “excessive” amounts of serviettes and encourage “drive-through premises to print car registration plates on the packaging which would identify litterers if found on the highway.”

It said environmental legislation could be used in some cases, and planning conditions on take aways could be more strictly enforced.

At the area committee meeting Councillors asked how the authority would go about changing the behaviour of persistent litter louts and fly tippers.

Damien Fisher, Shipley Area Co-Ordinator, said: “When you look at fly tipping we normally get a call from a member of the public, we go to pick it up, throw it in a bag and that’s it.

“What we might look to do is put ‘environmental crime’ tape around it like a crime scene and knock round local houses, asking people if they have seen who has done it. Sometimes we’ll get some positive results. It is one of the innovative approaches we’ll be trialling in the next year.”

Some members of the committee questioned why this new approach would be any more successful that previous litter campaigns.

Councillor Sarfraz Nazir (Lab, Manningham) said: “We have been trying to change behaviour for the last 15 years. We are taking resources out. Litter is increasing but we’re taking resources out. It is an issue we couldn’t solve when we had the resources, how are we going to solve it now we’ll have fewer resources?

“As local Councillors we’ll bear the brunt of this.”