Civic Pride 2008: 'My council clears my vomit up for me'

But in today's Britain it seems civic pride should be measured by how well councils clean up after vomiting binge-drinkers.

The Local Government Association, which represents councils across Britain, is launching a bizarre poster campaign to raise public awareness of the range of services provided from town halls.

Flattering: One of the graphic posters raising awareness of council services - in this case cleaning the streets after binge-drinkers

One of the posters in the 'My Council' campaign features a picture of a woman dressed in fishnet tights who, grasping a beer bottle, is bent double and vomiting in the street. The slogan reads: 'My council... clears up my mess'.

In another image, a dog is shown fouling a path with the caption: 'My council... clears me up every day'.

And another shows a man seated in a restaurant alongside the slogan: 'My council... makes sure this romantic meal won't give us the trots'.

The LGA says the campaign is meant to highlight the essential work done by workers such as street cleaners and restaurant inspectors.

But critics claim the posters are a sad indictment of life in modern Britain - and may even breach advertising rules on taste and decency.

Last night David Turtle of the moral campaign group Mediawatch UK said: 'Councils should be trying to educate people, not shock them.

'I'm particularly concerned about the effect of the posters on young people. This will just coarsen their attitudes and normalise this type of behaviour.'

And the Advertising Standards Authority is concerned the campaign may break its guidelines. An ASA spokesman said: 'The LGA must be careful that its shock tactics do not stray into territory that may cause serious or widespread offence.'

The LGA, which represents more than 400 councils in England and Wales, is launching the controversial campaign at its annual conference in Bournemouth next week.

Templates for posters - produced by the LGA at a cost of £2,000 - will be distributed and council leaders will be encouraged to mass produce them and plaster them all over their districts.

Romantic? One of the unsung jobs of council officer is to help keep restaurant visitors free from diarrhoea

The LGA, which has a budget of £21.5 million paid for by the taxpayer, has come up with a range of hare-brained schemes in the past. It pays £38,000 of public money for a 'bin tax' lobbyist, whose job it is to try to persuade Ministers of the merits of 'pay-as-you-throw' fines for discarding recyclable waste.

The LGA is also a leading force behind fortnightly rubbish collections, which have led to rising levels of fly-tipping and disease.

And it also backed moves for councils to fit microchips into bins to monitor the amount of waste thrown out by householders. The LGA says its 'hard-hitting' poster campaign has been triggered by research suggesting that the public is unaware of the range of work done by local councils.

It claims three in five people questioned did not know councils provided dog wardens or maintained swimming pools. Fewer than half of those who replied to the LGA survey realised that councils conducted hygiene checks at restaurants.

Chairman of the LGA Sir Simon Milton said: 'Most people have a story about uncollected bins or a wrangle over a parking ticket. Yet when you ask people what they think of their leisure centres or parks the responses are overwhelmingly positive. Councillors have been left asking themselves why they have an unmerited reputation.

'All the independent research shows that councils are providing people with excellent value for money. The posters are designed to get people to appreciate that their town hall does a massive amount with taxpayers' money.'

Shadow Communities Secretary Eric Pickles said: 'This is a damning portrait of Gordon Brown's Britain.

Binge-drinking is spiralling out of control and our streets are littered with mountains of rubbish. Council tax has doubled, yet frontline services have been brutally cut back.

'People will be offended that not only is taxpayers' cash being wasted on this propaganda but also that such disgusting images are being used.'