A woman has been fined for dropping a cigarette end in Carmarthen town centre.

The council’s environmental enforcement officers issued the fixed penalty notice for £75 to the 28-year-old in John Street.

Failure to pay could result in prosecution in the magistrates court and a maximum fine of up to £2,500.

The council hopes the fine will act as a warning to others that those caught throwing litter will be prosecuted.

It follows a campaign to raise awareness of smoking-related litter as research shows that discarded cigarette ends make up the largest proportion of litter in Carmarthenshire with 83 per cent of litter found on the county’s streets smoking-related.

Director of Technical Services Richard Workman said: “There is no excuse for littering our streets. Many people do not think of cigarette ends as litter, but they are. They make an area look unsightly and they are difficult and very expensive to clean up as the ends fall into grates and cracks in the pavement which makes them almost impossible to remove by normal cleaning.

“Hopefully this fine will help to raise awareness of this type of litter. We do not want to fine people but we will not hesitate to do so if they continue to litter in this way.”