The spread of fast-food outlets has unfortunately made a major contribution to the amount of litter dumped on our streets. That is not the fault of the takeaways. It's their customers who are to blame.

Too many of them can't be bothered to take their used containers to a waste bin and dispose of them properly. As a result containers with the remains of meals are dropped on pavements and in gutters, creating both an unpleasant, unsightly mess and a health hazard.

It is worse than a disgusting habit. It is also one of the reasons why the rat population is growing, with all the attendant public-health problems that brings.

So when the Council's enforcement team starts work next month it is right that one of its priorities should be making sure that the debris of the fast-food world is cleared away.

Hopefully the Bin It for Bradford campaign will have some impact by getting the message across to at least some of the takeaway's customers. But others will continue to carry on as they have always done. Hence the need to press the takeaways to accept more of the responsibility for clearing up the mess caused by the products which generate their profits.

In a perfect world (and we hope the new campaign will take us a few steps closer to that) no-one would drop litter. In the real world, though, we have to accept that a thoughtless minority will continue to do so.

It is surely only fair that the takeaways themselves, rather than the council taxpayers, should play the key role in clearing it away.