City of York Council is launching a crackdown on littering in the latest in its series of Neighbourhood Pride campaigns.

'Litter's Out' will see letters sent to every secondary school in the city asking teaching staff to remind pupils that littering is an offence and display posters to highlight this.

Schools will also be provided with clean-up kits and given advice on how to conduct 'litter-picks'. Officers from the council's Neighbourhood Services team will also be available to visit schools to offer further advice.

In addition to this, street environment officers will be stepping up their patrols in the mornings, at lunchtimes and at school leaving times. They will be monitoring littering and issuing fixed penalty notices to anyone caught in the act.

The letter to schools will also highlight the issue of graffiti damage and be sent with a DVD aimed at older pupils that looks at this problem in more detail.

City of York Council recently joined forces with North Yorkshire Police and the Safer York Partnership to form a graffiti task group that will work on tackling graffiti in a joined-up way. This will involve identifying school-aged culprits through closer working with schools. 

Jackie Armitage, enforcement and environment manager for the council, said: "Litter's Out is very much aimed at schools because we want to instil young people with a pride in their environment from an early age.

"The education work in schools, coupled with the increased patrols, should help to reinforce the message that littering won't be tolerated in York."