“THE cleaners have been moaning about the amount of cleaning up they have to do,” I heard a teenage boy complain the other day. “It’s a joke – it’s what they’re paid to do.”

He was talking about the cleaners at his school, whose job it is to clear up the canteen after its thousands of pupils have had their lunch.

I pointed out that pupils shouldn’t expect other people to have to clear up after them and that they should act responsibly by putting their own rubbish in the bins provided.

Margaret Mountford, once one of Lord Sugar’s sidekicks on The Apprentice, also points this out on her new BBC series Don’t Mess With Me.

In the first show last week, she reported on how cleaning teams keep Brighton beach free from the broken glass, needles and burning coals left by both visitors and locals every day.

Shockingly, she reveals Britain drops 30 million tons of litter a year, costing £1 billion to clear up. I wonder how much of this is footed by Brighton and Hove City Council, aka us, the council tax payers – money that could be used for many other worthier causes.