A Southampton man has paid the price for dropping the remains of his apple at the city's Sports Centre - a £25 council fine.

David Hawkins, 50, fell foul of the city's tough clean-up campaign - and now he is warning local residents to be on their guard.

Mr Hawkins, an antique dealer from Shirley, knew about the new anti-litter and dog-fouling campaign launched by the City Council to clean up Southamp-ton's streets and open spaces. But he admitted he had no idea fines would be given out for dropping bio-degradable items such as apple cores and banana skins.

"When I received a letter from the council saying I had been spotted dropping the apple core and must pay a £25 fine, I couldn't believe it. I'm all in favour of the anti-litter campaign but I do think this is taking it a bit far," he said.

His wife Paulene says she has deep misgivings about the litter campaign and thinks it is legislation gone mad.

"If my husband had dropped a Coke can, bottle or empty crisp packet I could understand the fine - but I've even been told that if you feed bread to the ducks now you must make sure you don't leave any bread as you could get a fine. It's just crazy," she said.

Mr Hawkins was spotted dropping the apple core by one of the city's new enforcement officers and traced through his car registration number.

"I am worried about these new rules. I think it's an infringement of people's privacy that they can be watched by people using binoculars and there were no signs at the Sports Centre to warn me," he added.

A spokesperson for Southampton City Council said the litter and dog fouling campaign was widely publicised at its launch.

"The term 'litter' covers any discarded items, whether bio-degradable or otherwise. The legislation therefore includes cigarette butts, chewing gum, apple cores, banana skins, etc - and the city council is particularly keen to discourage the discarding of food in parks as this attracts vermin such as rats.

"The anti-fouling campaign was launched with an educational phase, when the enforcement officers cautioned people for breaking the law. This period has now ended, and fixed penalties are issued on sight of any offences.

"It would not be fair for the enforcement officers to issue a fixed penalty to one person, while only cautioning another, or to make exceptions for certain kinds of litter."