A peer in the House of Lords has proposed making it easier to fine drivers who throw litter from their cars. It is already possible for councils to fine people up to £80 for throwing litter from a car, but the driver can say it wasn’t them/ they lent their car to a friend/ it was a little green alien.

Under the new proposals tabled by Lord Marlesford, the owner of the car would be made responsible for owning up or nominating the culprit. The noble Lord said, “Nothing degrades a road more than litter. The roads in England are some of the dirtiest in Europe. And it can so easily be dealt with.”According to a report in the Daily Telegraph, nine million drivers threw litter from their cars in 2011, at a cost to English councils of £863? million in 2010-11, excluding motorways and trunk roads.We certainly know about the issue of drivers denying liability. In our case, we did our civic duty a couple of years ago, when one of our team saw a hit-and-run accident. They took the number of the car and called the police. After a few weeks the police called to say that unless the witness could identify the driver at an identity parade, they would take no action. “But you have the number of the car” we said. The police said the driver denied being involved in any accident, so we pointed out the police could easily examine the now-repaired car for a recent respray. “Oh, we haven’t got time to do that” they replied.