NORTH Ayrshire Council has launched a strategy to combat litter louts, flytippers and inconsiderate dog owners this week.

The council are basing their campaign on three areas as the foundations of the fight to address the issues – Education, Enablement and Enforcement.

The main aims of the strategy seek to raise awareness of the problem, support communities to keep their area litter free, encourage people to dispose of waste correctly and highlight the penalties people can face if they are caught littering.

Councillor Tony Gurney, Cabinet Member for Environment and Infrastructure, said: “We have ambitious targets and want to reach the stage where there is no littering, flytipping or dog fouling in North Ayrshire.

“The new litter, dog fouling and flytipping strategy already has a firm foundation to build upon, thanks to recent work to improve litter bin provision, awareness raising work in schools and support for the people who carry out excellent work to keep their communities free of litter.

“It is heartening to see our young people – particularly those in primary schools – being so positive about stamping out litter. “We are already going in the right direction and are keen to build on the positives to support a litter free future.

“Of course, there is no excuse for littering, flytipping or dog fouling and there are strong measures in place to reinforce our message.” People caught littering face a fixed penalty £80, £200 for flytipping and up to £500 for dog-fouling.

“The penalties increase substantially if the matter goes to court with fines of up to £2,500 for littering and up to £40,000 or even a jail sentence for flytippers.

Our picture above shows Councillors Tony Gurney, Alan Munro and Peter McNamara with Mark McNeil, Streetscene Acting Operations Manager, and members of the Streetscene team.