The experiment

We carried out a test which involved Lloyd Harris dropping a paper bag 20 times in front of people walking in East Street and North Street, Chichester, as a way of testing their reactions to it.

Dressed in typical office attire and carrying a briefcase-type holdall
and a newspaper, Lloyd sat on benches and wandered past people as they milled about.

When he dropped the litter some people looked down at it, but then carried on with what they were doing.

What was surprising was some people didn't even bat an eyelid, treating it as if it were a natural occurrence.

However, there were four people brave enough to do something about it: three challenged Lloyd about his litter-dropping and one person picked up the litter themselves and went to put it in a bin.

Michael FitzGerald from Cosham was one of those to challenge him.
"I saw the gentleman drop some litter and I thought 'well, I will remind him of the fact'. I don't drop litter and I mentioned to him
he had dropped some litter. I said to him: 'Hey, you get a £50 fine for dropping litter'."

Tia Rolfe, from Barnham, was sitting on a bench next to Lloyd when he dropped his paper bag.

She saw him do it and when she got up she picked it up and went to put it in the bin.

"I saw it there and it was in the way. I wanted to put it in the bin. I think it is a big thing to just drop litter in the street."

During the experiment, Lloyd dropped the bag in front of three older women. Olive Goddard, who was in the group, waved her stick at him and told him off, followed by her daughter Dawn Lygo-Baker.

Olive, from Donnington said: "When I saw it I thought 'well that
is the youth of today'. Litter does annoy me. "

Dean Talbott from Parklands in Chichester saw him drop the litter and challenged him.

"I saw him and thought 'litter lout'. I make the effort to put stuff in the bin so I am sure other people can, too. I saw him do it and said 'there are bins up and down here'."

After the experiment Lloyd said he was not surprised so few people had challenged him.

"People are genuinely concerned about challenging offenders of any type and this is a reflection of the society we live in today," he said.

"It is important we adopt a balanced approach in tackling littering, and prevention is always better than cure. By educating people littering is unacceptable, this will, over time, produce a change in behaviour for the majority."

The grotbuster

Former police officer Lloyd Harris (36) has been helping to keep our
streets clean after becoming the district council's cleaner neighbourhoods officer.

The main thrust of Lloyd's work is dealing with litter, fly-tipping and nuisance vehicles.

After 15 years with the police, starting at the Met and then moving to Sussex Police's West Downs Division as a custody sergeant, he wanted a different kind of challenge.

His current role is all about helping change attitudes.
"I have tried to raise the awareness of litter to make people think about the area in which they live, but also to remind people litter is socially unacceptable in any form," he said.

"It is an exciting and challenging role and there is a lot of work to be done. Cigarette litter is the biggest problem here, as it is in a lot of council areas.

"This is because of the smoking ban. To help tackle this I'm planning to write to businesses within the Chichester district to offer discount litter bins to hang on their walls to negate the possibility of throwing cigarette butts on the ground.

"It takes up a significant amount of time getting rid of butts left on
the ground.

"I would always challenge someone if I saw them dropping litter, but
I think that is because of my background in the police more than anything.
"I don't think a lot of people would be prepared to challenge someone. I think children have a big part to play – I get told off by my children if they see me driving a little faster than the speed limit, and they always remind me to put on my seat belt before driving.

"It is also up to the parents to instil what is right and wrong into their children from an early age.

"We do education awareness with schools where we go in and give presentations and I also do this with community groups and parish councils. We are increasing awareness and asking people to tidy up after them."

Although Chichester is one of the cleanest areas in the county, there are problem areas such as Cathedral Green and Priory Park which Lloyd and his colleagues regularly patrol. While his team try to educate
people, they are looking into the possibility of enforcement action through fixed-penalty notices.

"We live in one of the cleanest council areas in the country, but we are not prepared to become complacent because this could then cause problems in the future," he said.

"Littering is a crime and we aim to send out a message that it is a crime. There is no excuse for littering – people should take their litter home with them or throw it in a bin if one is provided, not drop it on the floor or out of a car window."

Did you know?

The council has a number of schemes including community clean-ups, specialist programmes for removing graffiti and chewing gum, educational campaigns and a 24-hour grot line where residents can report littering, nuisance vehicles etc.

Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005 gave councils greater enforcement powers for litter, dog fouling, graffiti, fly-tipping and noise.

The main thrust of the act allows councils to issue fixed penalty notices, but also increase awareness. CDC welcomed it and decided in late 2007 to appoint an officer to coordinate enforcement under the act.

Thankfully, Chichester District is one of the cleanest and tidiest places in the country.

In a survey by the Local Environment Quality Survey of England, the council came out ahead of all other towns and districts in West Sussex, and was graded as 'good' at 41 per cent.

The national average for the survey is 26 per cent.

What you say...

Susie Kent of Queens Park, Chichester, saw him drop the litter but did not challenge him.

"I saw him drop it and I pointed at the bag to my friend. I don't think in this day and age I would want to challenge someone for their behaviour because I would be worried about what they might do.

"You shouldn't drop litter. When there is a litter bin right near you, there is no excuse."

Arthur Randell from Portsmouth didn't see Lloyd drop the litter but took offence to Michael FitzGerald challenging him.

"I don't agree with what he did and I don't think I would have done it. I think it is quite an offence to speak to people like that. I probably would have looked at him and walked on.

"It does annoy me when people drop litter but it also annoys me when a complete stranger tries to belittle the chap in front of other people. I have challenged people before but I have been told to 'mind my own business'."

Dawn from Horsham said: "I think we are not as good as we used to be with keeping areas tidy. With fast-food outlets and with so many people smoking in the streets than there were say 20 years ago, there is more of a problem today."



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