I NOTE with interest the correspondence on the problem of litter (Letters, December 30).

Twenty years ago I was visiting a friend in Bavaria. Saturday nights there could often resemble the Wild West as farm workers poured into town to slake their seemingly insatiable thirst in beer.

On Sunday morning my friend and I had a walk round his town and I saw not the slightest sign of litter anywhere. I asked: "How do you Bavarians keep your towns so clean?"

My fried replied: "We are no tidier by nature than you Scots, but we have very strict laws. Every householder or shop owner is responsible for keeping his frontage clean, as far out as the middle of the road, no matter where the litter comes from. If the neighbours complain you're not doing your bit, you get a warning phone-call from the council, and, if the neighbours are still complaining three weeks later, the council sends a lorry and three men to tidy up and you are billed for it.".

Later, when I told my mother that story, she said : "When our town had its own council, we had laws like that.'

I then recalled how very often visitors to my home town - which was a very un-picturesque, very busy fishing port - commented how clean it was.

So that's the solution. The problem is, we're just too soft nowadays.

Stan Fisher,

1 Whinfield Road,

Prestwick.