ON FEBRUARY 28 I was voluntarily clearing litter from the pitch-and-putt car park at Weston Shore. My attention was drawn to a car in which the front-seat passenger had just discarded his fast-food packaging on to an area that I had cleared a few minutes earlier. I spoke to the litterer who made a very poor attempt to clear up his litter.

I reported this littering incident, with car details and registration number, to the city council website under their heading 'anti-social behaviour'.

Today, in response to my report, I received a phone call from a city council employee. He explained that the council had disbanded their team who used to deal with littering offences and that I should report incidents of littering to the police.

Due to volume of calls I failed to get a response on the 101 police phone line so I went to the Hampshire police website. The police website, under its 'anti-social behaviour' heading, advised that incidents of littering should be reported to my local council!

It appears that all the local notices warning that litterers will be fined are a bluff. Despite all the recent publicity and campaigning about the problem of litter, it seems that the Southampton City Council doesn't consider it worthy of attention.

Volunteers are very good but they have no power to enforce good behaviour.

Richard Evans

Southampton