Mary welcomes world's first Litter Twitter initiative

Wakefield MP Mary Creagh is backing Wakefield Council’s anti-littering campaign on Twitter. 

The Council is using its pages on the social networking site Twitter to highlight the cost of littering, keep people updated about how the district is cleaned and show how much litter is collected from certain areas.

Anyone with a Twitter account can follow ‘welovewakefield’ for the latest news and all litter tweets will be tagged with #littertwitter.

Twitter features what is known as "microblogging". This is simply a way of sending and reading short text updates about what people or organisations are doing in simple format. Litter Twitter will be trialled initially for four weeks.

Cabinet Member for environment Cllr Clive Hudson said: “We’re being forced to spend £4m every year on cleaning the district because of litter louts. This money could be better spent elsewhere to provide benefits for everyone if those irresponsible few changed their ways.

 I would much rather see £4m spent on filling even more pot holes, building more children’s play areas and planting more flowers which is what people want.

This isn’t about passing the buck either - we have a responsibility to keep our district clean and have been praised by the government for doing just that. But what is wholly wrong is having a situation where people thoughtlessly chuck their litter on the floor to then expect us to pick it up. This campaign is about the consequences of the costs.”

The Council already runs intensive anti-littering programmes which range from education awareness through working with schools, to community support to taking enforcement action with Fixed Penalty Notices and running neighbourhood action schemes which target different areas of the district for a two-week period.

Yet, despite this vast investment and our best efforts which include education programmes in schools and with community groups, issuing Fixed Penalty Notices to fine litter bugs £75, the provision of up to 4,000 bins across the district - litter is still a challenge for the district and a major concern for the public.

For more information on a cleaner greener district visit: www.wakefield.gov.uk/cleanergreener or call the council on 0845 8 506 506.

Signing up to Twitter is free.You can access Twitter from the web or via mobile phone. Costs of accessing via phone will vary depending on your mobile provider and tariff.

Visit http://twitter.com/WeloveWakefield

And don’t forget, free internet access is available at all of the district’s libraries.