Pubs could be forced to foot the bill for street cleaning as one council seeks to cut down the number of cigarette butts littering the streets.
The Morning Advertiser reports that a Surrey council is considering issuing street litter control orders to publicans which would force them to clean up outside their pubs.
Reigate and Banstead council says that, since the introduction of the smoking ban, there is an increasing problem with people dropping smoking-related litter outside licensed premises.
Councillor Joan Spiers said: "If this continues we will be issuing street litter control notices to those landlords and businesses requiring them to either put measures in place to prevent litter being dropped or to clean it up themselves."
However, she did say that the majority of businesses were already taking steps to try and tackle the issue.
The smoking ban came in to effect on July 1st 2007, since then a number of publicans have blamed it for a downtown in their fortunes saying that some now prefer to drink at home where they are still able to smoke.
