A DARWEN councillor has blamed children for the town’s litter problem.

And Coun Simon Huggill has called for the installation of more bins to stop giving youngsters an excuse.

The Marsh House representative said: “The bins cost about £400 a piece to put in place, but if they help to reduce the amount of street cleaning needed, then I think they would very quickly pay for themselves.

“The problem seems to be younger people who feel they have to walk around with a can and a packet of crisps.

“If there’s no bin around, then who can blame them for dropping the litter?

“What’s worse is when they stuff it into a hedge and it’s there for years.

“We need to stop giving them an opportunity to be anti-social.”

Coun Huggill is also keen to stop the problem of dog fouling on the town’s streets.

He added: “You can also wrap dog poo up and put it in normal bins.

"Not a lot of people realise it and think it’s only allowed in special dog poo bins.

“More bins around the town would certainly help with all the fouling problems too.”

Fellow Darwen Coun Roy Davies agreed something needed to be done.

He said: “One of the bigg-est problems we have is people setting the plastic bins on fire, then the council, in their wisdom, take them away.

“We do need more bins, so people have somewhere to put their rubbish, but we need metal ones.

“We could also do with little bags on lamp posts, but all this might come at extra expense at a time when the council is having to make cut backs.”

Coun Michael Law-Riding, executive member for environment and sustainability, said the council was always keen to hear ideas on how to improve places blighted by litter.