Councils have been forced to spend an extra £33,000 on average dealing with litter and anti-social behaviour in parks since lockdown was eased, according to a new survey.

Keep Britain Tidy found that more than half of the parks in England have needed extra resources to clean up littering, empty bins and maintain public order.

The survey found councils have cleared up 57 tonnes of additional waste from their parks on average. Nearly half (465) expect to need extra staff to manage parks over the summer holidays.

Keep Britain Tidy has launched a new campaign urging people to ‘be kind’ to their park.

Richard McIlwain, deputy chief executive of Keep Britain Tidy, said: ’Clearly, effective and well-targeted enforcement will always have a role to play in curbing this behaviour, however, we also want to inspire people to look after our parks and the key workers who look after them. Hence, this campaign, which will be available to every local authority in the country and which is based on behavioural science, will act as an effective nudge to actively encourage people to treat our beautiful parks – and the amazing staff who work in them – with respect this summer.’