LITTER louts have coughed up more than £1 million to help keep Glasgow's streets clean over the past two years.

According to new Freedom of Information figures, more than 20,000 fixed penalty notices are handed out in a year, netting the council around £500,000 last year.

So far this financial year, from April 1 to August 31, nearly £200,000 has been collected.

During 2013/14, there were 20,267 fines imposed - leading to £368,944 being collected - and in 2014/15, 20,467 tickets were given out, collecting £519,709.

The figures break down into littering and dog fouling - with £80 fines for littering and £40 for dog fouling.

Around 18,500 cases during both years were for littering, with 1724 and 1889 for dog fouling.

In total, £1,082,876 has been paid to Glasgow City Council since April 2013 which the council says is invested back into street cleaning and community wardens.

A council spokeswoman said most of the tickets were issued in the city centre, where the footfall is highest.

She said littering and dog fouling were a long-term problem and the council wants to change people's behaviour them 'socially unacceptable'.

She said many community groups and schools had also launched their own clean-ups.

They include Eric Kay, of Action Hillhead, who has organised "disco" clean-ups for the past few years.

The 65-year-old retired civil servant and property manager, who lives off Gibson Street, became involved when his tenement organised a clean up of their garden area in 2001.

He then volunteered as a Neighbourhood Improvement Volunteers with Clean Glasgow and has been taking part in community clean-ups for 10 years.

He said: "The most popular ones are the disco ones. They originated with students from Glasgow University who were taking part in a Spring Clean Hillhead one year.

"They involve bringing along a boom box on a trolley. It adds an element of fun."

Eric said he believed it was important for people to play a part in cleaning up their own neighbourhood. The clean-ups organised by Action Hillhead can see up to 35 people turning out, he said.

"Council services are under strain and just now it's not uncommon to see litter," he said.

"It's important that the council does serve the litter bins - we can't replace those services - but we can enhance and improve them."

A spokeswoman for Clean Glasgow said: ”Enforcement is not a solution on its own and we also work with partners, community groups, schools and small businesses around the city on a range of measures including organising cleans up events, visiting schools and youth groups and enlisting the help of Neighbourhood Improvement Volunteers.

"The campaign aims to reduce environmental damage and improve local communities through encouraging everyone to play their part in keeping the city clean, not just the council, by disposing of rubbish correctly, recycling where possible and reporting issues and those who cause the problems. "Revenue from issuing FPNs goes back into funding enforcement and that too assists the effort in keeping the city clean."

The Evening Times previously reported how the vast majority of littering is cigarette butts.

Figures show TWENTY times as many people were fined for dropping cigarette butts as for litter.

A total of 20,401 smokers were fined £80 each - compared to just over 1400 who dropped litter, and 54 who threw chewing gum on the ground during a 14 month period up to March 2014.

Most were young people, aged 18 to 30.

The Evening Times is currently running its fifth Streets Ahead campaign helping people all across the city improve their communities for the benefit of all.

Along with partners Clean Glasgow, Glasgow Housing Association, Scottish Fire and Rescue, ScotRail and City Charitable Trust, the campaign supports projects already up and running and kick-starts new ones.

Thousands of pounds of grants have been paid out to help turn ideas into reality.

Your Streets Ahead team wants to hear from you, your council, your school, your business or your community group, and they can help with funding, equipment and advice.

HOW TO GET INVOLVED To get involved in the Evening Times Streets Ahead campaign, email streetsahead@heraldandtimes.co.uk or call 0141 302 6555 to tell us what you think needs done in your area, or let us know what's already under way and how we can help you to make it better.