Fermanagh District Council has declared war on those car users who hurl waste out of their vehicles as they leave town, usually the debris from carry-outs or the bagged waste of a day out or week-end away.

Fermanagh is one of the few Councils of the 26 which participates in the Borough Cleanliness Survey, although according to the Council's Director of Technical Services, Gerry Knox, the findings don't always reflect the bigger picture.

"I suppose we're more heavily into the Best Kept campaign, and the reason we do that is because it looks at an entire town or village rather than limited transepts that this survey does. By that I mean the survey measures cleanliness over a section of road or footway".

Turning to a league table of £50 fixed penalty tickets dished out by the 26 Councils since April 2004, Mr Knox suggested that the 117 tickets issued by Fermanagh Council showed, 'we're not the worst and we're not the best'.

He told the 'Herald' that his Council preferred to deal with litterbugs by working with offenders, although he accepted that, at times, they were difficult to reach so they could be personally handed a ticket.

However, he said the Council had no sympathy with vehicles throwing litter out of car windows as they drive along: "These people are ever so careful to bag their waste, tie a knot in the bag and then throw it out on the road or, if they're near a picnic site, dumping it there. That's dreadful."