By Karol Steele

A Canterbury shop owner has collected more than 300 signatures in less than a week on a petition asking for the city's litter bins to be replaced.

Manny Armario, the owner of Whatever Comics in St Peter's Street started the petition after Canterbury City Council made the decision to remove approximately 50 litter bins from Canterbury city centre as a precaution during the civil unrest seen elsewhere in England earlier this month.

As the bins were not there for a few days, the council decided to wait a while before putting them back, as an experiment to see what impact it would have on litter.

The council made the decision to only return half the bins, as they felt litter bins only encouraged people to litter in the streets.

Their decision prompted Mr Armario to start his petition for the return of the full number of bins.

Hawkinge Gazette and Channel Coast News 2011©