Campaign seeks to reduce littering on A-road

Dropping litter from any vehicle, such as a car, van, lorry or scooter, is an offence and a fine can be issued to the person responsible

A campaign to reduce littering on a major Leicestershire road is under way, with a council describing it as "a serious issue".

Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council (HBBC) is working with a number of other local authorities and National Highways to tackle the problem on the A5.

HBBC said certain sections of the road cannot be litter picked safely without traffic management and can cost up to £5,000 per clean-up.

The campaign, which aims to educate road users on how to report litter being dropped from a vehicle, began on 9 September and is due to run for a month.

During the campaign, officers will be holding enforcement action days and drivers are being reminded that littering from a vehicle can incur a £400 fine.

Lynda Hodgkins says “everybody knows they shouldn’t be littering"

A spokesperson for the council said littering from vehicles is "a serious issue" along the A5 due to the mess, impact on the environment and the risk to staff trying to remove it.

They added: "Due to the nature of the A5 being a high-speed road with high volumes of traffic, including large vehicles, it makes this road very challenging and dangerous to keep clean.

"We cannot litter pick certain sections without using traffic management which is both timely to organise and can cost up to £5,000 each occasion."

HBBC chairs the A5 partnership which is a joint approach, including 11 district councils, that seeks to tackle litter on the A5, which runs from London to Holyhead, passing close to Lutterworth and Hinckley in Leicestershire.

Lynda Hodgkins, councillor responsible for open spaces at the authority, said: "We hope that highlighting how easy it is to report littering and the hefty fine that can be issued will help drivers and passengers change their behaviour and take their litter home with them."