grough likes the direct approach, so we were taken on by a typically blunt message to litter louts in a Scottish national park.

The Loch Lomond and the Trossachs authority is telling people: ‘Don’t be a tosser’.

Sound advice in any situation, but in this instance the posters, which are springing up throughout the area, along with some with a gentler message, are aimed at those who turn off tourists by despoiling the verges, lay-bys and loch shores with rubbish.

Fiona Kennedy, of Killin, and a director of the Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park Community Partnership, said: “The materials we’ve developed this year are only the start of what we hope will be an ongoing campaign to change people's attitudes and behaviour.

“We know that this will take a long time. So we need to reinforce the ‘Take Your Litter Home’ message in as many ways as we can. We’ll target specific groups in different ways over the coming years.
“Next year we hope to focus on loch users and we’ll try new ways of getting the message across to fishermen and boat users.”

Dr Mike Cantlay, convener of the National Park Authority said: “It’s great that the partnership is taking this campaign forward.

“While there’s often a great deal of attention paid to who should clear up, we shouldn’t forget that the cause of litter is the people who drop it. We need to remind them that what they’re doing is not acceptable.”
Chair frames, broken boats, old barbecues and rusting cans were among the items collected by locals during a litter pick.

The annual bill for clearing litter in Scotland is £65 million.

Meanwhile, at the other end of the country, the New Forest National Park is after rubbish pictures. Now grough could be unkind and point to some fine examples, but what the authority actually wants are examples of the kind that the Scottish tosser cause.

The park authority has teamed up with the Forestry Commission and the New Forest district council to ask members of the public to send digital snaps or camera phone pictures of litter blackspots. They may even feature on the authorities’ websites or in their publications.

Digital pictures less than 1MB in size of litter in the New Forest may be sent by email to litter@forestry.gsi.gov.uk.  Captions should include the exact location of the litter and the date.  The campaign runs until 31 December 2006.