Residents fined in clean-up campaign

Rubbish is blighting parts of Birmingham

More than 50 people have been fined £50 each in a campaign to cut the amount of rubbish being dumped on city pavements.

The residents - who all live in five roads in the Selly Oak area of Birmingham - will have to pay a £50 penalty.

Council leaders have targeted 2,000 homes in the pilot scheme which is aimed at encouraging people to take more care with their bin bags.

Officials have been trying to tell people about the best ways to dispose of rubbish and what days their refuse will be collected.

Sue Blakley, from Birmingham City Council, said: "We do find that there is a particular problem in inner-city areas where people haven't got front gardens to store rubbish or maybe houses are divided into flats.

"We've tried to educate them as much as we can, but, where this has failed, we are issuing fixed penalty notices."