Wakefield Council considers RSPCA link-up over litter messaging

The local authority said using the animal rights charity could help to bring home the dangers of dumping rubbish.

Council leader Denise Jeffery slammed litter-dropping locals earlier this year, suggesting Wakefield," Seems to be one of the places where people think that the council will just pick it up."

But rubbish is still blighting parks, fields and streets across the district.

Asked about the problem at a climate change scrutiny meeting on Monday, the council's Streetscene manager said "more work" would be done on addressing it.

Charlie Tindill said: "We’ll have situations at the moment where groups go to a green space with a picnic, which they’ll have and then they’ll leave all the stuff behind.

"I just can’t understand that.

"When we say, 'You shouldn’t do that, it costs the council lots of money to clean it up,' people don’t really listen.

"Whereas if we use the RSPCA and and we’re able to say, 'Look what happens to the animals because of the litter'.

"We’ve had issues where animals and birds have been caught up in the plastic.

"They've got their heads stuck in cans.

"If only people knew all of that.

"So I’m confident we’ll be able to have some impact around that."

Last February, ugly images of a huge litter drop at Sandal Castle caused anger on social media.

Beer cans and fast food boxes were among the rubbish left abandoned in a ditch at the popular historical site.

Local Democracy Reporting Service