LITTER louts need to be made aware of the consequences of their actions, a Council committee has resolved.

Bradford Council’s Bradford East Area Committee were discussing street cleansing in the constituency at a meeting on Thursday evening.

They heard about the regular problem faced by Council staff tasked with keeping the streets clean - people thoughtlessly dropping litter.

The Council recently started a new campaign urging people not to drop litter from their cars. It has seen a number of signs saying “Don’t Be a Tosser” installed on busy Bradford roads. But one member questioned if the a less confrontational approach was needed.

Councillor Jeanette Sunderland, leader of the Lib Dems on Bradford Council pointed out the hypocrisy of people who complained about cuts to Council services while still dropping litter or fly tipping.

She said: “People need to realise that if they didn’t throw litter on the streets the council would have more money to spend on services that would help their families have a better life.

Bradford drivers and passengers warned 'don't be a tosser' in new litter campaign

“We spend millions of pounds sending staff out to pick up litter and disposing of it. That is millions of pounds that isn’t going on other services for the people of our District because we have to clean up after people who are too lazy to put their litter in a bin or go to the tip.

“We need to have some kind of adverts that help people make the connections between the coffee cup they are about to drop on the street and someone they know not getting the Council services they deserve. We should do a bit more social advertising than the hard line adverts we’ve got now, that might just lead to people thinking ‘haha, you won’t catch me.’”

The committee also heard that in certain areas of Bradford East there had been recent spikes in the amount of litter and fly tipping reported to the Council. Members were told that this coincided with the good work being done by a number of community groups, including Bradford4better. Such groups were behind litter picks and community engagement projects, and was likely leading to people being more engaged about clearing up their communities.

Members praised the works being done by those groups. Councillor Riaz Ahmed (Lib Dem, Bradford Moor) said: "Groups like Bradford4better are encouraging people to clean up, and are doing a lot of awareness work on social media. If reporting is going up because of this then that is encouraging."

Chair Councillor Rachel Sunderland said: "These are voluntary groups free from Council meddling. we have to commend these people."

Councillor Jeanette Sunderland also praised the Council staff who work to keep the district's streets clean. She said: "I would like to thank all the people who get up every morning to sort our streets out. It is not a job I would want to do. I don't think we recognise the contributions of these individuals enough. They go out and clean an area up only for some prat to trash it again."

Over the coming weeks all five of Bradford’s area committees will have similar debates about street cleansing in their areas.

Among the recommendations made by the Bradford East area committee was the call to investigate social advertising suggest by Cllr Sunderland.