CRAVEN is bucking the trend by collecting almost every fine it imposes for environmental offences.

But it is being encouraged to issue more fines to people who drop litter or leave dog mess on the streets.

This week the minister for Local Environmental Quality, Ben Bradshaw, revealed at a Keep Britain Tidy campaign conference that throughout Yorkshire and Humberside, only 1,699 fines were issued last year for litter and dog fouling. And of these only 60 per cent were actually paid.

Craven is doing a lot better at enforcing fines. Last year it issued 26 fines for dogs fouling streets and 25 were paid. One resulted in a court case which was won by the council.

However, it has not issued a single fine for dropping litter and in five years has only issued 44 for dog fouling.

Defra said Pendle Borough Council did not submit any details but a spokeswoman for the authority said it had issued 13 fixed penalty notices in the West Craven area alone last year.

And she added that between January 17 and December 13 2005, 18 fines were issued to people for dropping litter on the street, three were issued for dog fouling and two for throwing litter from vehicles.

She added that council officers regularly patrolled areas such as Barnoldswick town centre, working with police community beat managers and local schools.

However, the authority was unwilling to release specific information on the percentages of fines which were actually paid.

Instead, a spokeswoman said: "The payment rate has been very good, but any that aren't paid will be forwarded to our legal department."

Mr Bradshaw said he was "disturbed" to hear that of the 20,000 fixed penalty notices issued in England last year 8,000 (or 40 per cent) were never paid.

"Far too many local authorities are treating fixed penalty notices as some kind of voluntary fining scheme - what kind of message does that send to the litterbugs and vandals?" asked Mr Bradshaw. "People will only take these fines seriously if local authorities take them seriously."

In England and Wales there are 354 local authorities with powers to issue fixed penalty notices. But Craven is one of only 78 which achieved a payment rate of more than 75 per cent.

But it is also one of 142 to issue no fines at all for litter dropping.

"In the short-term, targeting resources at cleaning up might seem like the best idea, but it just isn't efficient. We need to look at changing behaviour," said the minister. "This can be achieved through education and campaigns, but where that doesn't work we need strict enforcement of the law.

"Thanks to the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act, local authorities will soon have powers to issue fines for a wider range of

crimes: these are powers they have asked for, and they are powers they must use. It's no good issuing fines only to let these litterbugs, fly-posters and irresponsible dog owners get away with it."

Mr Bradshaw will be writing to those local authorities which have poor payment records to urge them to improve their performance. Defra will also be working with Keep Britain Tidy over the coming year to provide support and training, as well as encourage local authorities to make full use of fixed penalties and to ensure that they are paid.