At South Holland District Council's recent full council meeting members asked what progress was being made on enforcement following a host of recent reports on the issue in the Lincolnshire Free Press and Spalding Guardian.

Coun Stephen Williams, portfolio holder for regulatory services, said: "At the moment we have an officer on a course looking at evidence gathering. Unless it is done properly we are not able to enforce fixed penalty notices.

"I realise this is becoming more of a problem and we will be taking action against people who do allow fouling and issuing fixed penalty notices to them.

"I have had a look at some of the complaints and some are not actually on the highways but are in public open spaces so it's a serious situation and it will be dealt with."

A register has been set up to log problems that arise and Coun Graham Dark has urged people to make sure they write in to the council with the details of existing problems they are aware of so they can be tackled once training is complete.