A regional publisher has reached the halfway point in its fight to get tougher sentences imposed on litterers.

In Your Area, Reach plc’s hyperlocal news service, is calling either for littering fines to be increased from £150 to £1,000 or the enforcement of 100 hours of community service for the offence as part of its ‘Don’t Trash Our Future’ campaign.

A petition set up to accompany the campaign has now received 50,000 signatures, with In Your Area setting itself a target of getting 100,000 to sign.

Ed Walker, the service’s editor-in-chief, has praised Reach’s newsrooms for their support of the campaign.

How the Burton Mail covered the campaign’s launch in July

Ed told HTFP: “We’ve had great support from In Your Area users and the general public too for our campaign. 50,000 signatures from all corners of the country shows the strength of feeling and annoyance there is about this issue.

“During October we also ran a survey across In Your Area and our Live network of sites asking how littering had changed during the pandemic.

“It was clear the face mask has become the new crisp packet or fast-food wrapper dropped on our streets for more than 4,000 people who took part.

“I’d like to thank all the Reach newsrooms for their support on this campaign and we’ll be continuing to feature the campaign across our titles, and In Your Area, as we drive on towards the 100,000 signatures mark and getting the government to consider giving councils the ability to lift the fixed penalty notice amount for littering to act as a deterrent to litterbugs.”