A STATUE standing six feet tall, furniture and a rocking horse are among the tonnes of litter that blight Britain's motorways and cost £6m a year to clear.

Latest figures from the Highways Agency reveal they annually collect over 7,500 tonnes of litter from our roads leading to the launch of a campaign to get motorists to bag their waste and bin it.

In February 2013 the Highways Agency collected 1,640 sacks of litter in and around the Merseyside, Greater Manchester, Cheshire and south Lancashire area some of it large enough to cause a major accident.

Litter on motorways and major A-roads can also threaten wildlife and block drains which can lead to flooding.

Roads Minister Robert Goodwill said: “The Highways Agency spends at least £6 million a year collecting more than 150,000 sacks of litter from England’s motorways. It costs around £40 to collect each bag of rubbish from a motorway, roughly what it costs the Agency to fix a pothole.

“With the ‘Bag it Bin It’ campaign we want to encourage more people to keep a bag in their car, bag their rubbish themselves and dispose of it safely."

Phil Barton, chief executive of Keep Britain Tidy said: “Local authorities in England already spend £1billion in street cleaning and car litter is a considerable factor in this. People should take responsibility for their environment."