Car owners to be fined if litter is seen being thrown out In 2011, nine million drivers threw litter from their cars. The cost of clearing up this roadside litter contributes to a bill for English councils which reached £863 million in 2010-11, with additional spending on clearing litter along motorways and trunk roads. Samantha Harding, the "Stop the Drop" campaign manager at the Campaign to Protect Rural England, said Greater London had already issued a civil penalty for littering similar to a parking fine. The new Bill would extend this power to all English councils. When people get away with littering we all end up footing the bill. In a perfect world people would take responsibility for their own litter, and we encourage everyone to do this. But if people think they can toss litter from their cars, councils should have an effective way to fine them and that's what this bill delivers," she said. Bill Bryson, the American author and former president of the CPRE, described England's roadsides as "an informal linear tip" last month when calling for the Government to take action. He said "Litter is becoming the default condition of the British roadside. Surely we are entitled to expect better? The AA welcomed the Bill. "Most of our members hate litter louts; our only concern would be to make sure there are rights of appeal," said a spokesman. Lord Marlesford said he hoped the Bill would be picked up in Parliament and pushed through as quickly as possible during the next session, as the problem was a relatively simple one to solve. I want action, not words. So I am asking Parliament to do two things. First to deter people from littering from vehicles by making the vehicle owner pay a fixed penalty of £80, whoever has thrown the litter out of it," he said. Second, to require local authorities, which spend over £800 million clearing up litter, to report each year to the public, whose money it is, how much they have spent on litter clearing contracts, with the names of the contractors and the roads for which they are responsible, and to certify that they are satisfied that the job has been done. That will enable people to complain about dirty roads direct to local authorities or to contractors.