The survey found an overall improvement in street cleanliness

Tidy Northern Ireland director Ian Cole said a major survey showed that "95% of the country was clean" but efforts were hampered by those who continue to drop litter.

"Ratepayers fork out over �22m a year to keep Northern Ireland tidy, and judging by our results they get very good value for money," Mr Cole said.

The Tidy Northern Ireland survey will be presented to Environment Minister Angela Smith on Monday.

Overall improvement

Armagh and Castlereagh came top in the survey of about 1,500 sites in 26 council areas.

It found an overall improvement in street cleanliness and in council-owned facilities.

Tidy Northern Ireland found cause for concern in the amount of cartons and cans, fast food and sweet wrappers being discarded.

More positively, dog fouling has dropped to a low of 9% - with six councils including Moyle and Larne having none at all.

Mr Cole said too many people were still either "too lazy or too ignorant" to use a bin.

"With recent legislation doubling the fine for littering to �50 what we need now is for the authorities to dish more out and send a powerful message to the public that dropping litter will not be tolerated in Northern Ireland," he added.