More than a quarter of all fines slapped on litter bugs in Yorkshire and Humber last year were handed out in Bradford, new figures show.

Bradford has handed out more £50 on-the-spot fines to litterbugs than any other area of Yorkshire during 2004 to 2005.

The figures, released by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), showed that a total of 624 fines were handed out in the Bradford area for environmental offences ranging from flytipping to dog fouling.

Nearly 1,700 fines were dished across the whole of Yorkshire and Humberside.

However, the figures have also revealed that nearly 40 per cent of these fines were never paid to Bradford Council, a trend which was reflected nationally.

The fines were handed out by the Council's 14-strong enforcement team, which patrols the streets of Bradford to help catch litter-bugs in the act. They also field calls from members of the public who can report littering offences to them.

Neil Atkinson, who heads up the enforcement team, said that the main reason for the high levels of unpaid fines was that identifying the perpetrator was always a difficulty.

"Looking at the figures we seem to have been responsible more than a quarter of the fines handed out in Yorkshire.

"I do not think this is due to there being more littering offences here than anywhere else, I think it is a case of us using the powers available to us and that the public are catching on to the idea.

"Much of our fixed penalty notices related to littering from vehicles and more often then not we have to rely on the public to report these instances to us.

"Often it is difficult to identify who threw the litter, as there may have been more than one person in the car or there may have been someone else driving.

" If we haven't got a good description of the driver, then we cannot follow it up."

Mr Atkinson said that the recipient of fixed penalty notices are given two written reminders if they do not pay their fine. If these letters are ignored than the Council seeks action through the courts.

"We are currently conducting a review of the process that will hopefully enable us to follow up more fines.

"Currently people have to come to our offices to pay up the fine but we hope soon to be able to allow people to pay over the phone."

Calderdale Council was the next most active in handing out fines, issuing 363, of which 249 were paid.

Kirklees Council handed out only four fines, two of which were paid. No figures were available for Leeds.

A recent MORI poll placed clean streets third behind low crime and decent health services in a poll of what makes somewhere a good place to live.