Countryside Management Association News

The results of this year's Local Environmental Quality Survey of England (LEQSE) have been announced.

Latest data from the annual survey shows that litter levels in England have fallen 5% to a five-year low, and a 45% increase in the number of local authorities issuing fines for litter as well as an improved collection rate for fines.

Local Environment Quality Minister, Ben Bradshaw, said:

"The results of the survey show that litter has reduced for the first time, across all land use classes, and performance on litter has moved to satisfactory levels, which is very good news.

Delving further into the trends for litter, again, for many types we're managing to keep things where they are, such as smoking-related litter, consistently found at 79% of sites - this figure has remained the same again this year. Others, such as fast food litter have gone up, but I'm pleased to report that at least the rate of increase has slowed. These items were found on 24% of sites, up 2% from 2004/5. Drinks-related litter has also continued to creep up in prevalence over the last 3 years, with alcoholic and non-alcoholic drink containers increasing at a similar rate. So clearly there remains a lot of work for us to do in order to bring about a significant rise in standards.

The overall picture for flyposting, and graffiti, which are key environmental crime indicators, has remained good."