People caught dropping litter or illegally dumping rubbish in Cardiff are to be given on-the-spot fines as part of a new policy.

Anti-litter enforcement officers have been given powers to hand out penalties of �25 to anyone discovered dropping rubbish or even putting it out too early.

It is quite amazing the avenues we have to go down to find out who is putting the stuff in the wrong places

Michael Kelly, City Centre Manager

Shop owners and food outlets will also be targeted under the scheme.

Over the last three months the city council has taken action against more than 800 businesses and members of the public breaching litter regulations.

They include:

• Doctors and dentists putting out medical waste which should have been incinerated
• Food outlets using the wrong refuse bags
• Retail outlets dumping packaging in public car parks
• Residents dumping black bags in the streets

David Sandbrook, a senior enforcement officer said the new powers will help them tackle the problem.

"We are going to target the individuals who contribute to this problem," he said.

"We will search the bags to look for evidence of origin and directly engage with these people," he added.

Last year 10,000 tonnes of litter was collected from streets in Cardiff.

The scheme is part of the Keep Cardiff Tidy campaign to cut the amount of litter discarded on the streets in half by May 2003 - a reduction of 20 tonnes a week.

10,000 tonnes of street litter was collected last year

Brian Close, one of the enforcement officers said the team are vigilant in tracking down people who dump their waste on the streets.

"There is quite a bit of detective work involved and it is quite amazing the avenues we have to go down to find out who is putting the stuff in the wrong places," he said.

Michael Kelly, City Centre Manager, hopes the new fixed penalty fines will deter people from littering the area they live in.

"Keep Cardiff Tidy has helped to clean up the city," he said.

"These new powers will help further. We are now calling on magistrates to exact the full power of the law to levy appropriate penalties on litter offenders," he said.