MORE and better cleaning up is urged as the solution to tackle litter in Scotland in an Agenda article by George Niblock and John Crawford ("We cannot keep sweeping grubby problem of litter under the carpet", The Herald, January 7).

The authors state that "we need to clean up our country" and refers to prevention being the "holy grail" of the Scottish Government's new Litter Strategy, driven by Zero Waste Scotland.

While few would disagree about the importance of cleaner communities, simply picking up litter is not the only or best way we are going to get them. Councils, businesses, charities and volunteers up and down the country are already engaged in constant clean-ups.

Simply picking up after people is a never-ending task and we need to concentrate on stopping the litter being dropped in the first place. That's why the Scottish Government's litter strategy takes a three-pronged approach: information (telling people why dropping litter is wrong); infrastructure (more Recycle on the Go, more bins) and enforcement - already this year the fines for littering and fly-tipping have been substantially increased to provide a stronger deterrent. Scotland now has some of the toughest anti-littering penalties in Europe, with fines of £80 for littering and £200 for fly-tipping.

This renewed focus on litter is sorely needed and I hope as many organisations, communities and individuals as possible are able to support the delivery of the strategy.

Iain Gulland,

Chief Executive,

Zero Waste Scotland, Forthside Way, Stirling.