§ 15. Mr. BurnsTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what assessment he has made of the operation of the litter provisions of the Environmental Protection Act 1990; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. MacleanThe main measure of the effectiveness of the new litter laws is whether Britain is getting any cleaner. A survey by the Tidy Britain Group, one year after the laws were introduced, showed an average 13 per cent. immprovement in cleanliness.
§ Mr. BurnsWill my hon. Friend join me in congratulating Chelmsford borough council on the way —both proactive and reactive—in which it is pursuing litter louts througout the borough by appointing litter wardens? Does he agree with Mr. Sadler, the council's director of environmental services, who believes that, provided that the laws are fully enforced and the necessary powers are used to the ultimate extent, a deterrent is created and people are prevented from becoming the litter louts that they might otherwise become?
§ Mr. MacleanI admire the way in which my hon. Friend speaks up for Chelmsford with a Basildonesquetype passion. Of course, I congratulate Chelmsford on the excellent way in which it has implemented our litter laws and I call on other local authorities to respond in as positive a fashion. My hon. Friend is right to suggest that the people of this country now have greatly enhanced powers to insist that their councils keep their areas clean. We shall look again to make sure that enough people know about their new rights and are prepared to exercise them.
§ Mr. HardyIs not Britain still the scruffiest, most litter-ridden country in Europe? Whatever the Tidy Britain Group may say, and splendid though its work may be, millions of our fellow citizens are ashamed of the state of our land.
§ Mr. MacleanNo, I reject that entirely. Even if the hon. Gentleman thinks that some parts of the country are not as tidy as they should be, the way in which he expressed his view will do nothing to encourage the millions of people who are keeping the country clean. We need to give those people more positive encouragement, not denigrate their efforts. I happen to have with me a paper issued by the Tidy Britain Group which gives details of the results of a survey that the group conducted last year in capitals throughout Europe. London came second only to Berne in Switzerland for tidiness and cleanliness. I congratulate Londoners on keeping their city tidy. I hope that they will keep up their efforts, but without becoming too boring.
§ Mr. OppenheimWould not the workings of the Act and, indeed, the lot of refuse collectors be facilitated if councils themselves were to refrain from producing rubbish such as Derbyshire county council's notorious and discredited political newspaper, Insight, which finds its way instantaneously into hundreds of thousands of bins all over the county? Would not the county council be best advised to stop wasting hundreds of thousands of pounds on such rubbish and instead spend it on reinstating hundreds of teachers whom they are threatening with redundancy—[Interruption.]
§ Madam SpeakerOrder. The points that I made earlier apply to the entire House.
§ Mr. MacleanMy hon. Friend is right. It is a pity that the paper to which he referred is being chucked in rubbish bins, as it could be properly recycled. However, I should be worried to use paper recycled from anything published by Derbyshire county council. I can think also of a few Sunday newspapers that would be better recycled than read.