LITTER louts are set to be hit in the pocket as on-the-spot fines are set to almost double.

From April next year, litterbugs in Worcester will be hit by on-the-spot fines of £150.

The maximum fixed penalty councils can hand out to people dropping litter will rise from £80 to £150, the Government has announced.

The minimum fine will increase from £50 to £65, while the default fine will increase from £75 to £100, the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) said.

Cllr Adrian Gregson, leader of Worcester City Council said: "If the rules are being broken and people are purposely throwing litter on the floor or fly tipping then they should be penalised because they are making the city a mess for the rest of us.

"It's no good for the environment, our general health or for tourism to the city.

"We are doing quite a lot of work through the environment committee on education on littering.

"Clearly any campaign that we run has got to be about education and awareness."

Worcester City Council has issued a total of 263 fines for littering since April - just over nine a week.

Based on the current default fine, the council will have received around £20,000 from the fines.

The new proposed rate would have pushed that up by an extra £6,000.

Local councils will also be able to fine the owners of vehicles from which litter was thrown, even if it was dropped by someone else.

Legislation will be introduced by the end of this year to bring in the proposals, subject to parliamentary approval, next year.

Cllr Joy Squires, chair of Worcester City Council’s environment committee, said: “We welcome anything that supports us in our work to address anti-social behaviour and littering.”

Environment minister Therese Coffey said: "Littering blights our communities, spoils our countryside and taxpayers’ money is wasted cleaning it up.

"Throwing rubbish from a vehicle is just as unacceptable as dropping it in the street and we will tackle this anti-social behaviour by hitting litter louts in the pocket.

"These new fines will make sure the perpetrators, not the local community, bear the cost of keeping our streets and roads clean."