Cost of cleaning Britain's streets tops £858 million

Keep Britain Tidy has launched a campaign with local authorities up and down the country designed to encourage everyone to 'Get Behind Keep Britain Tidy' and do their bit to clean up the place in which they live. The launch comes as the chairty reveals the bill to clean up England's streets now exceeds £850 million/year.

New figures show that the amount of money spent by local authorities in England on clearing up cigarette ends, food wrappers and other rubbish every year has risen by almost £100 million,from £780 million to £858 million.

However the posters launched as part of the campaign (see below) have sparked controversy with some critics labelling them childish and inappropriate.Asked whether they found the posters offensive in a recent online poll, 39% of CM readers said they thought they were just a bit of fun, while 35% did find them offensive and 26% weren't sure.