WHEN will people learn to be clean in their habits and stop dropping litter and spitting out chewing gum on the pavements?

The problem, highlighted in Darlington (Echo, Mar 12), is mirrored throughout the region and the country.

Dropping litter of any kind makes an area unsightly and potentially dangerously dirty. Why should we have to suffer grim, smelly, filthy surroundings, just because some people are too thoughtless and lazy to dispose of their litter in the correct manner?

Just think what the annual £50,000 Darlington Borough Council has set aside for a street cleaning machine could be used for if there was no mess to be cleaned up.

EA Moralee, Billingham.