Worcester City Rangers, the city's park wardens, spent a total of 404 hours last year picking up rubbish dumped on our green spaces, says Warwick Neale, Worcester City Council's conservation officer.

"They collected 340 rubbish bags of litter, filled six skips, eight van loads of illegally tipped rubbish and picked up 1,700 newspapers, which had been dumped rather than delivered.

"These figures do not include the efforts undertaken by the Duckworth Worcestershire Trust, volunteer litter wardens and last year's 'Rubbish? Sort it!' campaign," he said.

The city council owns 240 acres of nature reserves including woodland in Warndon and Tolladine, as well as the Ronkswood Hill Meadows.

The big problem for the city is flytipping which, according to Mr Neale, is simply "other people's garden rubbish that is taken out of their gardens and dumped on our open spaces."

"It ruins the look of the area because it is mainly brick rubble rather than vegetation."

Many do not think of the implications and the fact they are breaking the law.

Fly-tipping is illegal under the Environmental Protection Act, 1990, and it is the Environment Agency's responsibility to investigate such activities.

There are severe deterrents in place to try to stop people from doing this. Section 33 of the Act says anyone found guilty of fly-tipping can be fined up to £20,000 and/or face up to six months in jail.

If the case goes to the Crown Court there is an unlimited fine and the maximum term of imprisonment that may be imposed is two years.

But as eight van loads of waste was collected by the rangers in 2002, it is clear many are undeterred.

In an attempt to cut this down, the city council is planning to put up signs around nature reserves informing people of the penalties they face

Wildlife

The signs, although welcoming all visitors, will make it clear that flytipping is one of the things people cannot do. The activity damages the environment and prevents plants, such as wild flowers, from blossoming.

This indirectly affects the wildlife because it reduces their habitat.

"Fly-tipping of garden rubbish on to our reserves may not be considered as harming the wildlife, but stacked, rotting vegetation is a haven for rats," said Mr Neale.

This year's Rubbish? Sort It! scheme ends on Saturday, May 22

"We are delighted with the response," said Mark Driscoll, the Trust's project manager. "Working with a wide variety of people we can make a real positive and practical improvement in our local environment."