CIGARETTE butts discarded on the streets of Dorchester could soon be a thing of the past if plans to install bins all around the town are successful. A campaign launched by the Dorchester Stop the Drop anti-litter group means that businesses in Dorchester can buy and install a cigarette bin for just £10 to stop the streets getting cluttered with rubbish.

The scheme backed by the Campaign for the Protection or Rural England and West Dorset District Council is the first in Dorset and aims to reduce the amount of butts that have littered the town’s streets since the smoking ban came into force in 2007.

Chairman of Dorchester Stop the Drop, Bob Kerr, said: “We have managed to get a substantial discount for these bins and we are confident that traders will welcome the chance to see the end of discarded cigarette butts littering the doorways of their premises.”

The first bin was installed outside the Starbucks coffee shop in South Street – a place that workers said was bad for discarded butts because of the outside seating area.

Supervisor Russell John Curtis said: “It will cut costs for us because we no longer need to buy the plastic butt envelopes for our customers.

“It’s more presentable and much better than people throwing them on the floor – in the past when we’d clear up there was a lot of butts on the floor – it was really bad.”

Funding for the scheme has come from Dorchester BID, the CPRE and the district council – who have also agreed that the bins can be installed on any listed or unlisted building in Dorchester without planning permission.

President of the Dorchester Chamber of Commerce and town crier Alistair Chisholm said he had also been actively campaigning to install the bins around the town.

“Most discarded butts remain on the ground are difficult to remove by sweepers and they can take years to disintegrate,” he said.

Waste Services manager at the district council Ian Doyle said: “Cigarette butts on the floor are a problem throughout the country.

“Since the smoking ban everybody is outsideand there hasn’t really been an adequate solution.

“We’re really happy to support this initiative.”

Anyone wanting to take advantage of the scheme should contact Bob Kerr on 01305 267049.