No butts '“ not on our streets, please

Arun officers were seen dressed in the costumes, handing out free portable ashtrays and information, in Bognor Regis, Littlehampton, Worthing and Shoreham-by-Sea as they helped launch a two-week advertising campaign.

More than 1,000 portable ashtrays, known as '˜Stubbis', were handed out across the district to smokers, encouraging them to '˜Stub it, Bin it!' rather than dispose of their cigarettes on the street.

Dan Cox, Street Scene Coordinator at Arun District Council, has helped organise the campaign and dressed as a cigarette butt to help spread the message to the public.

'We had a really positive response from everyone we spoke to,' he said. 'A lot of smokers already knew about portable ashtrays and were keen to get their hands on one. Even non-smokers were eager to get an ashtray for their partners, parents or friends who smoke. After seeing such a good attitude from the public yesterday, I am sure that this campaign will help keep more cigarette litter off the streets of Arun from now on.

"The adverts are in place and officers will be on the look out next week for those few who still refuse to bin their butts.'

The amount of cigarette litter on the streets has increased significantly since the introduction of the Smokefree legislation on July 1, according to research from Encams.

The council does have powers under the Clean Neighbourhood and Environment Act to issue on-the-spot fines of 80 to anyone who throws their cigarette butt on the street instead of in a bin, and will fine anyone seen littering in this way. Smoking-related rubbish is now the UK's biggest litter problem, and the advertising campaign has been launched to change people's attitudes and behaviour towards dropping cigarette litter.

The campaign sees advertising appear on bus shelters, beer mats, in washrooms and even on the floors and windows of some businesses in Littlehampton and Bognor Regis to encourage smokers to dispose of their cigarette litter responsibly.

The adverts have been designed and funded by the Keep Britain Tidy campaign. It has teamed up with 10 local authorities in an attempt to educate people about cigarette litter and promote alternative ways to dispose of them.