THE BEST place to start tackling Bolton's litter mountain is in the classroom, say education and enforcement officers.

Bolton Council spends £2.5 million a year picking up debris such as sweet wrappers, crisp packets and drinks cans.

In a get tough move, as reported in Monday's Bolton Evening News, they have now set up spy vans to covertly film schoolchildren dropping litter and have so far issued more than 60 £50 fixed penalty fines to pupils. At Mount St Joseph High School on Tuesday, education officer Cuthbert Jackson was driving home the anti-litter message to pupils in the year seven assembly.

The school spends up to £600 a month, paying someone to work four hours a day picking up the litter dropped by pupils. Last year the school spent. £1,200 on a special machine to help keep the fields clear.

"Its like every month spending the same as we would on a laptop," said the school's business manager Keith Harris.

He added that 90per cent of the pupils at the school are responsible about litter and will dispose of it correctly, but there is a persistent 10pc who thoughtlessly drop their rubbish.

We met pupils on the Mount St Joseph School Council to discuss the problem.

All the pupils, who vary in age from 11 to 16, admitted to dropping litter in the past.

"People are too lazy to walk to a bin," said Year 8 pupil Beth Allcock.

And Jasmin Leitner, who is in Year 10, believes anti-litter campaigns can have the opposite effect on young people who do not like being told what to do by authority figures.

"They just won't do it," she said. Several members of the council believed there were not enough bins inside the school to hold the crisp packets, cans and bottles discarded by pupils.

They all complained about having to scour the fields for dropped litter and discarded food before sports lessons can start.

"After break and lunchtimes there are always lots of seagulls that come down," said Year 11 pupil Arianne Small.

The pupils admitted to being shocked when they learned pupils could face £50 fines for dropping litter and several believed the move could have a positive impact on changing behaviour.

"It is a good idea because people won't want a £50 fine," said Ben Thomas, Year 11.

"If you are responsible enough to go out by yourself then you should be responsible enough not to drop litter," said Beth.

But Year 8 pupil Peter Grimes believes no number of fines or education about the problems of litter will make some people change their habits.

"They are not going to listen. They will still do it and drop litter anyway," he said.

Several pupils believe tougher measures should be introduced, such as making pupils pick up litter around the school as a punishment.