A charity is urging people to stop littering, as figures show that Manchester will spend about £6 million on street cleaning this year.

Keep Britain Tidy has joined forces with firms including Costa, Greggs and McDonald’s, to call on people to help keep their streets clean, and in turn help councils use taxpayer’s money on other services.

The charity also says that litter is dangerous to wildlife, and that it could even increase anti-social behaviour.

Manchester council said that everyone has to ‘play their part’ in tackling the problem.

Coun Nigel Murphy, executive member for neighbourhoods, said: “As well as our spending on street cleaning, we carry out other work to combat littering from enforcement - such as patrols giving on-the-spot fines to litterbugs - to raising awareness of the negative consequences of such selfish actions.

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“We have also invested in new street cleaning equipment in recent years.

“But while the council clearly has a role in picking up litter, we aren’t the ones dropping it and everyone needs to play their part to help us have clean streets we can be proud of. There is no excuse for littering.”

Keep Britain Tidy says its Great British Spring Clean 2017 will be its biggest ever campaign, and will officially start in March next year.

During last year’s initiative, 300,000 bags of rubbish were collected by volunteers across the country.

Allison Ogden-Newton, chief executive of Keep Britain Tidy, said: “The Great British Spring Clean is about getting all those people who care about their environment to take action.

“We know that more than 50% of people are concerned about the appearance of their local area and so we want them to feel that they can do something about it and they are not alone in caring.

“If 500,000 people help us pick litter for just two hours each that means that our country will benefit from one million hours of clean-up care.”

A survey conducted by the charity found that one on three people would consider moving away from an area if it was full of litter.

In addition, figures released by the RSPCA show that the organisation has receives about 5,000 reports a year of animals being injured by it.

TV wildlife presenter Steve Backshall, who is backing the campaign, said: “Litter dropped in a British street is a horror show for wildlife, so many animals are injured and even die from the things we throw away.

“This is such an important issue and I’m proud to be supporting Keep Britain Tidy and their campaign – the Great British Spring Clean.”