BLACKBURN’S new bus station is becoming blighted by litter louts – despite an abundance of bins and the threat of fines from enforcement officers.

Council bosses have vowed to crackdown on the 'disgraceful’ individuals who drop rubbish around the £4.7million building opened in May 2016 rather than use the nearby bins.

The area has tended to see youths gathering and skateboarding in the evenings since the bus station opened in May 2016.

Blackburn with Darwen borough environment chief Cllr Jim Smith promised to deploy enforcement officers from private company Kingdom Environment Enforcement Services to issue £75 on-the-spot fines to those responsible.

The litter near the bus station was dropped on Monday evening and cleared up by the council early the following morning.

The bus station is part of a major regeneration of the town centre including the £34million Cathedral Quarter.

Cllr Riley said: “I noticed the mess of litter around 5.30pm last night when there were a lot of youths and skateboarders about.

“It is disgraceful. We have spent millions of pounds on the bus station and town centre regeneration and young people need to learnt to respect their surroundings.

“We will use every means possible to catch those responsible and stop this littering.”

Cllr Smith said: “We have an issue with youths dropping litter around the bus station in the evenings.

“It is frankly absolutely disgusting.

“I shall be deploying officer from Kingdom Services to in the evenings to deal with this and issue £75 fines to those responsible.

“The good thing about employing them as enforcement contractors is that they are very flexible about the hours their staff work.

“It is unacceptable that young people should drop litter like this and leave the council taxpayer to foot the bill for clearing it up.”

Borough council Tory group leader John Slater said: “The people who do this are irresponsible idiots.

“I support using every possible means to catch and stop them.

“The council has spent millions on the town centre and people need to take care of it.”

Harriet Roberts, Blackburn Business Improvement District Manager, said: “Thanks to partnership working across the town, we have a generally clean and tidy town centre. The council’s litter enforcement team need to act on the perpetrators.”