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The Conservatives have promised extra taxes on late night opening and high-alcohol drinks, as well as a ban on selling drinks under cost price. Their plans come just weeks after it emerged that the Government is planning to introduce minimum prices for alcohol to help meet the costs of drinking on society.

Having considered these two options, Steve Wright, Chairman of the British Cleaning Council, said: “While we support any measures that will improve our public spaces, we would rather see investment in educating people on the importance of proper waste disposal and recycling, rather than simply promising them that we will clean up in their wake.

"There is no excuse for dropping litter, no matter how much a person has spent on alcohol, and we believe that a society that values its environment would be the best outcome from any new legislative measures.”

Meanwhile, public attitudes towards the drinking culture has taken a negative turn, with one in four people stating in an Ipsos Mori poll that they avoided parts of their local area because of alcohol related disorder. Alcohol-related problems are estimated to cost the UK up to £13 billion a year.

Dickie Felton of Keep Britain Tidy said: “Fast food and confectionary litter not only looks appalling; it costs the taxpayer millions of pounds each year to clean-up. We believe that companies should be taking more responsibility over what happens to that burger box or pasty wrapper once it leaves their premises. But we are not convinced that a “clean-up” levy is the right way to achieve cleaner streets. We very much believe in prevention rather than cure. We want all companies involved in the selling of cigarettes, drinks and confectionary to be doing more to encourage their customers to do the right thing and use a bin.”


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I couldn't agree more with both Steve's and Dickie's comments. I find it incredible that all this excess litter is blamed merely on the availability of cheap alcohol. One only has to walk along the local High Street on a Saturday or Sunday to see shoppers - most of whom I'm assuming to be sober - drop litter willy-nilly rather than look for a bin or take the rubbish home with them. Most don't even seem to be aware that they're doing it.

And I'm not too pious to remember many a good night fuelled by rather more cheap alcohol than was good for me and whichever group of friends I've happened to be out with over the years. We didn't drop litter or smash our glasses and bottles in the streets because it just wasn't done. It's a culture thing - and ours needs sorting!

And although it's not really cleaning, while I'm on the subject I'm going to mention it anyway. All this talk about changing the labels on bottles of alcohol to try and educate drinkers about the dangers of drinking 'excessively' is an enormous waste of money. We drink the amount we do because we want to.

What the Government really ought to be doing is tackling the mind-set that our young people have, that it's OK to drink so heavily that they end up vomiting or flashing what should be kept private in full view of whoever may be watching. Smoking became socially unacceptable long before it was banned in public places and this was down to the sort of education that people took notice of: it makes you smell bad and makes you and those around you ill. What we need to do is make it socially unacceptable for people to drink themselves senseless and because of the state they're in, give our street cleaners much more than litter to clean up. They need to be taught to behave with dignity.

As I said before it's a culture thing - and it needs sorting.