Local councillors have all welcomed new harsher penalties for litter crime.

The Scottish Government has announced that the current Fixed Penalty Notice (FPN) for litter will be increased from £50 to £80 and quadrupled to £200 for flytipping.

It will roll out a national campaign to raise awareness of the changes from May 2014.

Leading environmental charity, Keep Scotland Beautiful, has responded in support of these changes but says that more needs to be done.

Keep Scotland Beautiful’s Clean Up Scotland campaign aims to eradicate the litter problems that blight our communities. It is currently working to engage one million people across Scotland to get together to Clean Up and green up local areas.

Carole Noble, head of environmental services at Keep Scotland Beautiful, said: “We welcome this move to increase fixed penalty fines for irresponsible disposal of litter and for flytipping.

"This antisocial behaviour affects communities across Scotland and needs to be tackled head on.

“However, increased fines form only part of the solution, we also need to support the services provided by our local councils who provide and empty litter bins, and work together to raise awareness of the litter and flytipping problem and its consequences.”