CALLS have been made to review the contract of the ‘litter police’ in Pendle.

Cllr David Whipp, who represents the Craven ward, says more than 3,000 people have been handed out fixed penalty notices since District Enforcement took over a contract to crackdown on litter in February.

According to figures, 2,566 were caught dropping cigarette butts on the floor, 352 from littering rolled up cigarettes and then 55 for dog fouling.

Meanwhile there were four occasions of sweet wrapper littering, five for soft drinks bottle dropping and 17 occurrences of general littering.

Cllr Whipp has concerns about the scheme and has estimated that it will have resulted in £1m being taken out of people’s pockets through Fixed Penalty Notices and court fines.

He said: “I have been a litter zealot for about 40 years and regularly campaign for cleaner streets by making sure there are enough bins.

“But I think the so-called litter police are counter-productive and is not really helping get rid of litter and a lot of money has been taken off people.

“The sort of litter that is of most concern to typical residents are crisp packets or dog mess – but these are a tiny part of what is being caught.

“I think it is alienating people and will not make people have pride in the community.

“It is breeding a generation who resent authority and disrespect the environment.

“It is resulting in a host of people not wanting to do their bit.”

On his social media post, Cllr Whipp added that £30,000 will be paid to the council by the contractor running the scheme but did say that the council’s in-house staff have pursued more fly-tipping incidents (up from 42 last year to 142 this year).

He said: “I think it is a disgrace as for the first six months there was £600,000 taken and it is a huge amount taken out of people’s pockets. That is affecting local people’s spending power in the economy.”

Cllr Mohammed Iqbal, leader of Pendle Council, said: “We have a meeting with the operators and the contract is up in February.

“Cllr Whipp is right that 95 per cent of the offences were for cigarette butts. I am not condoning litter being dropped but it should be for all general types of littering not just cigarette butts.”