THE Hyndburn councillor responsible for the environment has called on secondary schools in the borough to keep children in at lunchtimes to slash litter problems.

Councillor Ann Scaife launched the scathing attack, as she revealed she would be meeting with county council education bosses to discuss the problem.

But today schools in the area have defended themselves, saying they work with children to teach them not to drop litter.

Coun Scaife said: "I want the children being kept in at lunchtime, end of story. The schools may feel precious about it, so they are going to have to live outside the box and do something different."

But Paul Trickett, Deputy head at Rhyddings High School, Oswaldtwistle, says schools are often unfairly picked out.

And he revealed that the school has litter picking programmes and sometimes use the task as a punishment for misbehaving youngsters.

He said: "Schools get the blame for litter being dropped, but what people forget is that these kids have come from homes where I am sure the parents would be horrified and would defend to the end of the earth that they taught them not to drop it."

Rhyddings address litter through Citizenship classes, through competitions, and even employ an outside firm to clean up at the end of term.

Hazel Wilkinson, school liaison officer at Hollins Technology College, Accrington, believes that schools can work together to look at the problem.

She said: "We do get the blame for an awful lot. There ought to be some personal involvement but just at the moment it seems everybody thinks it's down to us.

"But we are all part of a team, part of the same culture and should all be working together on this. We do our best, and just hope other people do the same."

Coun Scaife added: "The schools are on holiday at the moment, and the streets are clean. That means these pupils don't know how to behave, it's as simple as that. If they came out of school and placed the rubbish in a bin who would be complaining?"