Culture city shames litter louts

Liverpool City Council wants to clean up the city before 2008

Litter louts in Liverpool will be issued with £50 on-the-spot fines in a bid to clean up the city ahead of its Capital of Culture year in 2008.

Liverpool City Council says people who refuse to pay the penalties will be "named and shamed" on their website.

The scheme has been piloted in some areas of the city but will come into full force over the next few weeks.

Council leader Mike Storey said: "It will be a 24 hour a day operation, seven days a week."

"Unfortunately, people drop litter at all times of the day and night and we have to combat that," he said.

"Along with the vast majority of people, in the city, we are determined that Liverpool will be clean, litter and graffiti free.

"We will not allow the selfish minority to ruin our environment so we are going to have zero tolerance for this sort of behaviour."

The city council, which wants to ban smoking in public places in the city centre, has previously handed out portable ashtrays to smokers in an attempt to curb litter.

The enforcement will be carried out by street crime wardens and plain-clothes council staff, supported by Gold Zone police.