PUPILS have been banned from picking up litter at some East Lancashire schools amid fears for their health and safety.

The "widespread" move was today condemned by litter campaigners and councillors, who said making children tidy up their school could give them a valuable lesson in life.

According to education bosses, headteachers have begun introducing the ban in the last year. And they said staff are worried about children picking up syringes, rusty cans, broken glass and animal faeces, and the increasing threat of legal action that may follow from injuries or diseases.

Although teachers believe educating children about litter and the environment remained a priority, several consider sending out youngsters too risky.

Litter campaigners rubbished those claims and said children should be encouraged to pick up litter and it was easy to do so without any risks.

Peter Gibson, a spokesman for the Keep Britain Tidy Campaign, said his organisation had never heard of schools stopping children from picking litter up before.

He added: "We organise clean-ups with children all the time. Before we do, we give them common-sense advice and safety equipment.

"In fact, it is very important for kids to take part in clean-ups.

"It is no good telling children that there is always going to be someone coming along to clean up after them because they grow into adults who believe someone is going to clean up after them."

Mr Gibson said that in a recent national survey, schoolchildren were found to be the worst offenders when it came to dropping litter but that all children thought their schools were a mess.

A spokesman for the Health and Safety Executive said that although it issued guidelines for local authorities, decisions about what schoolchildren could and could not do were down to individual councils.

Blackburn with Darwen Council said it left schools to make up their own minds.

A spokesman added: "Individual schools set their own health and safety policies.

"Some litter can be dangerous so some schools have taken the decision that it is an unacceptable risk."

Lancashire County Council said teachers could stop children picking litter if they thought it appropriate and that a number of schools had done so.

Both councils have encountered increasing problems with compensation claims in recent years from everything to trips on badly laid pavements to slips in icy weather and have blamed a move towards a compensation culture.

The move to ban children from clearing up rubbish was first highlighted at a Blackburn with Darwen Council scrutiny committee meeting.

Coun Sheila Williams said: "They leave it until it gets really bad and then get someone in to clean the mess up. They might send a few out if a VIP is visiting but not at any other time."

After the meeting, she added: "I was appalled when I was told about this."

Frank Havard, headteacher at the Hollins Technology College in Accrington, said he did not send children out to pick up litter en-masse and added: "We do have to be careful because of health and safety issues."

Mr Havard said children spotted dropping litter were asked to pick it up by staff but the remainder was cleared by maintenance staff.

But not all schools have stopped sending pupils out to pick litter. John Gosling, head at Witton Park County High School, Blackburn, said: "We have children out picking litter up two afternoons every week. We have them out with supervisors regularly."