LITTER is a major blight on our streets - and the men charged with clearing other peoples rubbish are just as fed up with it as the rest of us.

Two years ago Lancaster City Council's street cleansing department shifted 4,500 tonnes of street rubbish, a figure that remains virtually steady.

It is an awesome amount - weighing in at the same as the Royal Navy Class 23 frigate HMS Lancaster.

That proud vessel - the city's official 'twin' ship - weighs in at 4,900 tonnes. Council clean-sing workers have to shift as much as that from the streets of Lancaster, Morecambe and district.

And most of the rubbish consists of things that shouldn't be there in the first place.

"It is very frustrating. We go out into Lancaster city centre at six every morning and the streets are spotless by eight," says John Murie.

"But by 9.30 it looks as though we have been nowhere near the place. We have teams and Lancaster and teams in Morecambe and we all take a pride in our job - and it is more than annoying when we see people simply throwing their rubbish down onto the street we have just cleaned."

A team hits the street at 6am and another crew with a wonderful machine called a Johnston 5000 also goes out the blitz the litter bandits.

The Johnston 5000 is a cleaning tool worth £80,000 - an impressive bit of kit, carrying 250 gallons of water for blasting away oil or other spilled substances, environmentally friendly detergent and room for three-and-a-half tonnes of rubbish.

"We fill it most mornings," smiles John. "It is amazing the amount of stuff we collect.

"But people are lazy. You see folk on a night out with pizza boxes and kebab wrappers and they just throw them onto the floor rather than using a bin. And it's not as though there is a shortage of bins in the area."

John has been with the council for 36 years and his litter-busting partner Graham Mapp also has 30 years service in.

"Some people give us grief for not collecting rubbish," says Graham. "But we have been out and have collected every day - and it's often new rubbish that has been thrown down after we passed."

John and Graham, along with the rest of the cleansing department staff, are on permanent call. 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 52 weeks a year, says John.

He points out wuite matter of factly: "All the litter is man-made, it doesn't need to be there and everyone pays for the clean up."