HOW can City of York Council claim a feeble total of 19 fixed penalty notices in six months represents a tough approach to dropping litter ("Drop drive does just fine", November 3)?

As someone who was nominated for a York Community Pride Award for my litter-picking efforts, I can inform Councillor Waller that such a weak response has had little if any discernible impact on the amount of litter across the city.

The article fails to mention that only two of the fines were issued outside the Guildhall ward - a fact which will do little to ease the frustration of residents who feel that improvement efforts are focused on the city centre rather than residential areas.

There is much to do to overcome the still widely-held view that dropping litter is a trivial matter.

The general appearance of the local environment can and does influence people's behaviour. A well-kept area makes people feel better about themselves and less inclined to behave in a negative way. While a litter-strewn appearance suggests no one cares and acts as a green light for people to add to the problems.

Unfortunately, the council's response, while well intended, seems to have been under-resourced and under-managed.

Making better use of existing resources, improving public awareness and tackling litter hotspots are supposedly all part of the council's litter reduction strategy, but progress seems painfully slow - why, for example, are bus stops and benches in York so poorly served with litter bins?

As it is, the failure to issue fixed penalty notices to litter louts in anything like the numbers required (Amsterdam issued over 7,000 fines last year) means no real deterrent, no real improvement and a further erosion of the respect for law and order in general.

Joe Watkinson,

Pulleyn Drive,

York.

Updated: 10:01 Monday, November 08, 2004