I AM writing with regard to the recent letters concerning the cleansing of Redditch.

I would like to make a few points which may be of interest.

If you drop litter and allow your dogs to foul public areas, everyone suffers.

Further, to carry out these acts is an offence under law - it can lead not just to embarrassment when caught but a large fine.

I myself and colleagues at Redditch Council care very much about the state of this town. A large proportion of my time is spent targeting resources at the worst problem areas. We can, however, only do so much.

Lack of thought and carelessness of a minority increases our workload and it is, of course, the public who suffer the cost.

How can we tackle this problem?

Firstly, be educating people not to drop litter.

We are very proactive on this issue and have staff who are dedicated to this role. However, we all have a personal responsibility to look after the environment in which we live.

We must teach others not to drop litter, parents should teach their children and neighbours should teach each other.

Secondly, we need to pick the litter up. This council does this of course but obviously, as with everything in life, it is not possible to devote endless resources to the issue.

The main problem occurs when people drop more litter than we can physically pick up.

Thirdly, we need to catch offenders and make examples of them. We are now working hard to catch littering offenders and when caught, fines can go as high as £2,500.

Myself and other colleagues will prosecute offenders when caught.

We are doing our best and continually checking ourselves to see if we can improve but the solution is in people's hands, not just ours.

Stuart Jones

Landscape and

Cleansing Officer

Redditch Borough Council