The people of Glasgow have been urged to play their part in keeping the city clean, with the launch of a new £4m campaign.

Clean Glasgow is aimed at instilling pride in the city and punishing people who break the law by littering, fly tipping, spraying graffiti and allowing their dogs to foul the streets.

Crucially, the City Council will form partnerships with local neighbourhoods, the business community and other parts of the public sector in Glasgow to reduce the amount of litter dropped and increase the amount which is cleaned up.

A series of Charters, which will effectively form contracts between the City Council and these various sections of the community, will target street litter, graffiti, chewing gum, fly tipping, fly posting and dog fouling - which cost Glasgow taxpayers a staggering £16m in unnecessary spending every year to remove.

The charters will be distributed across the city in groups of ten neighbourhoods and will immediately be followed up by a visit from a Clean Glasgow Team. The team will consist of refuse collectors, graffiti removal teams, enforcement officers, mobile CCTV vans and community engagement teams.

Clean Glasgow will combine an initial “heart and minds” programme aimed at instilling pride in the city’s environment, followed by a get-tough zero tolerance clampdown on litter crime - including  uniformed enforcement teams who will hit offenders with on-the-spot £50 fines.

Council leader Steven Purcell, speaking at the launch at Glasgow City Chambers today, said: "People throw away up to nine tonnes of litter in the city centre alone on weekend nights. That's enough to fill 12 refuse trucks and is completely unacceptable.

“No city authority can keep a city clean on its own.   What’s needed is for the people who live and work in this city to decide to stop dropping litter, encourage their children not to drop litter and start to report fly tipping and graffiti.

"The Council has to play its part too. We are investing millions more in keeping Glasgow tidy - but I'd much rather than money spent on simply cleaning up after people was instead spent on better services for all citizens.

"By working together, local people and the council can create a cleaner Glasgow. But the ultimate enforcement message is: ‘If you continue to act in this anti-social way, you will be caught and fined.”

The campaign will provide new or redirected resources for the fight against grime crime, including:

• 185 dedicated clean-up and enforcement staff
• 200 new bins with cigarette trays in the city centre alone
• 10 new mobile CCTV vans

Clean Glasgow’s first focus is the Neighbourhood Charter, copies of which will be delivered to every single home in Glasgow’s 56 housing areas in a rolling programme over the coming weeks.

Coinciding with the delivery of these Charters, clean-up squads will arrive in each area to tackle street litter, graffiti, eyesore fly-tipping refuse and more - returning on a regular basis.

In addition, a new network of Community Safety Patrol Officers will report litter, graffiti, vandalism and other anti-social behaviour - resulting in fines for those responsible.

The Charter will also invite local people and community organisations to get involved by calling a freephone number to the Clean Glasgow Community Action Team, who will organise special local clean-up events - providing toolkits of equipment and safety advice.

Other charters will be launched over the coming months, as will the new enforcement campaign.