£11m spent to clean city streets

£11m is spent each year picking litter off the streets

Eleven million pounds of ratepayers money is spent every year in Belfast cleaning streets.

Between October 2008 and May this year, 903 litter fines were issued by Belfast City Council.

The worst offenders are aged between 18 and 35 and the council are continuing their Litter - get a grip campaign.

"Litter is something people feel very strongly about. Too many people say, it's only a wee butt, or only a bit of gum," said councillor Pat McCarthy.

"We're all guilty of littering but since we started our anti-litter campaign, we have seen people's habits change for the better so it's important that we keep up the momentum to make Belfast litter-free, and a city we can all be proud of."

The campaign, which started in 2004, visits schools around the city to try and get the anti-litter message across.

The council said the number of people who admit to dropping litter has fallen by almost a fifth.