Douglas Borough Council is offering a £200 cash prize as first prize in its competition to design a poster aimed at stamping out the ‘toxic blight’ of cigarette-related litter and encouraging smokers to dispose of their cigarette butts responsibly.

Environmental Services Chair Councillor Ritchie McNicholl said: ‘It’s said that cigarette butts are the most littered item on Earth. Smoking-related litter has a hugely detrimental impact on the environment; it blights our streets and green spaces and projects a deeply negative image of our town.

‘The Council does all it can to keep the streets of Douglas clean, but the general public must also play their part. And it’s with this in mind that the Council has launched this design-a-poster competition, in a bid to discourage the all-too-prevalent antisocial practice of dropping cigarette ends in the street. In short, cigarette littering is a community problem that demands a community response.’

The winning poster design will be used in an anti-cigarette-related litter campaign and will attract a £200 cash prize.

A further £100 cash prize be awarded to the best junior submission.

The prizes will be awarded by His Worship the Mayor Councillor Jonathan Joughin JP at a date to be confirmed.

The design should be original and innovative, aimed at influencing positive behavioural change. It must also be capable of being re-sized for billboards, A3 posters, social media and web use.

To take part in the competition, submit your design to mailto:postercampaign@douglas.gov.im in a recognised file format (TIFF, JPEG, BMP, PNG or GIF) or send a copy of your design to Poster Campaign Competition, P.O., Box 2, Douglas, Isle of Man IM99 1AD by Friday June 11.  Contact details must accompany all design submissions.

A littering offence attracts a fixed-penalty notice of £50.

For more information contact Waste Services, 696445.