Britain ought to make its prisoners work in "chain gangs" to clear litter building up on the side of major public roads, a Conservative MP has said. Andrew Percy, MP for Brigg and Goole, made the suggestion after becoming concerned about rubbish mounting up by motorways in his constituency, including hundreds of bottles of urine thrown away by lorry drivers.
"In the US I have seen chain gangs out clearing highways -- why can't we do that here?" he said. "We have criminals expected to pay back -- why not get them out there doing something of use?"
Mr Percy has written to the Highways Agency to about growing piles of litter on the M62 and A63 in East Yorkshire following complaints from his constituents.
"We need a British equivalent of the US chain gang," he said. "The only risk we have in this country is there are too many do-gooders claiming it's against [prisoners'] human rights.
"We don't necessarily need them to be wearing orange jump suits and chained together, but what we should be looking at is we've got all these people sat in prison who could be working in the community."