CHEWING gum, cigarette ends, crisp packets and fish and chip boxes are scarring Skipton, according to U3A member Alan Brown.

Mr Brown is a member of the group, which promotes learning and activity in older people, and over the last six years he and a small band of other members have organised a monthly litter pick around the town.

But now, with age creeping up, they have decided to stand down and enjoy a more leisurely retirement.

David Gurney has volunteered to continue the group's activities, but recruitment will have to wait until the autumn when the U3A's winter programme is drawn up.

Mr Brown told the Herald: "I wish I could claim that six years of effort has resulted in a tidier Skipton.

"Sadly the public at large has little awareness that our beautiful town is badly scarred by litter - in the ginnels, in the area immediately outside the (train) station and along Broughton Road, as well as other approaches to the town.

"Even if the resources for cleaning up Skipton are increased substantially I feel the only long-term solution is to concentrate on increasing public awareness of the damage to the town's image caused by the careless ditching of litter."

Mr Brown said chewing gum was the biggest blight on Skipton, followed by fish and chip boxes, cigarette ends and discarded crisps and bottles.

"We must be the chewing gum capital of Europe. The pavements are littered with white marks and it costs a quid to remove just one of them," he explained.

The group, usually 10-strong, will have its last litter pick on Wednesday. It is meeting at 2pm at the corner of Coach Street car park and hopes that it will have plenty of helpers for its very last effort.