Crisp stunt leaves salty taste

It is making £97 million in cuts, but Wolverhampton Council still has the resources to allow its staff to dress up as crisp packets.

The council is sending seven enforcement officers out on the streets dressed up as rubbish in a bid to persuade people to stop dropping litter.

While thousands of staff fear for their jobs as the council prepares to lose anything up to 25 per cent of its annual budget later this year, some officers are being told to hand out badges urging people to keep the city streets clean.

The authority is teaming up with charity Keep Britain Tidy to target culprits as part of a national campaign.

The council has spent £1,770 and received a batch of postcards from the charity.

It bought the crisp packet outfits with funding from taxpayer funded bodies at a conference on environmental crime organised by the West Midlands Environmental Crime Group which is a group is supported by the seven West Midlands Councils, Environment Agency, Police, Fire Service and Keep Britain Tidy Group."

John Mellor, the 81-year-old president of the Wolverhampton branch of the National Pensioners Convention, said the exercise sent out the wrong message when up to 2,000 council jobs face the axe because of the cuts.

He said: "During this period of austerity there is a still a desire to keep streets litter free but at this moment in time this campaign appears rather frivolous."

Wolverhampton City Council spokesman Gurdip Thandi said: "A total of £1,770 has been spent on the litter campaign.

"Seven officers from the Environmental Crime team are involved in the campaign and such campaigns are a part of the integrated approach to addressing the challenge of littering across the city. There are regular litter patrols in the city and those undertaken during the campaign are part of the normal work programme.

"Last year's gum litter campaign resulted in a 51 per cent reduction in gum litter in monitored areas. The council recognises the serious challenge of littering - it costs the authority around £3 million a year to clear rubbish from city streets."