Saturday, August 29, 2020
Time for councils to come down hard on anti-social litterers
The biggest part of my workload as a Councillor is dealing with litter and fly-tipping. It can get very frustrating, especially when week-in, week-out the same areas suffer from the same offender and the council dutifully removes the material without taking any further action.
It is no wonder that some people think that there is no need going to the tip, when they can just dump stuff on the pavement without consequences, and have it taken away for them. But what is the alternative? Leave the area looking like a rubbish dump? That is nothing something I want or will tolerate.
It was no surprise therefore to read in the Guardian that most councils issue less than one fine a week to litterers, with one in six issuing no fines at all across a year:
Campaigners at Clean Up Britain said the level of littering was “shameful” and that enforcement of fines by councils should be made compulsory. They said the maximum on-the-spot fine of £150 was “derisory” and should be increased to £1,000.
Littering has increased as more people have visited parks during the coronavirus pandemic, with councils each having to clear up an average of 57 tonnes of additional waste from April to July, according to a survey by Keep Britain Tidy (KBT). “The levels of litter and waste being left has reached unprecedented levels,” one council officer told KBT.
Clean Up Britain received replies to their freedom of information (FOI) requests from 169 councils, representing more than half of councils in England and Wales. The majority – 56% – issued less than one litter fine a week and 16% issued no fines at all in the financial year 2018-19, the most recent year for which the FOI data is available.
The London borough of Hounslow issued the most fines for littering, with 156 per week, and Bristol council was second, with 151 a week. Four other London boroughs were in the top 10 – Merton, Camden, Bexley and Wandsworth. The Wirral, Wolverhampton and Doncaster councils also issued more than 80 litter fines a week
But Harrogate, Stevenage, Bridgend, Derbyshire Dales and South Somerset councils were among those issuing no litter fines at all, while Chorley and King’s Lynn and West Norfolk councils issued a single fine and Stratford-on-Avon council issued two.
Cornwall council, which runs a #LitterlessCornwall campaign also issued two fines in 2018-19. In total, the councils issued 116,000 fines for littering, compared with 2.3m fines for parking offences.
Keep Britain Tidy run training courses for council officers in effective and proportionate enforcement. It seems that more councils need to take advantage of those courses.
It is no wonder that some people think that there is no need going to the tip, when they can just dump stuff on the pavement without consequences, and have it taken away for them. But what is the alternative? Leave the area looking like a rubbish dump? That is nothing something I want or will tolerate.
It was no surprise therefore to read in the Guardian that most councils issue less than one fine a week to litterers, with one in six issuing no fines at all across a year:
Campaigners at Clean Up Britain said the level of littering was “shameful” and that enforcement of fines by councils should be made compulsory. They said the maximum on-the-spot fine of £150 was “derisory” and should be increased to £1,000.
Littering has increased as more people have visited parks during the coronavirus pandemic, with councils each having to clear up an average of 57 tonnes of additional waste from April to July, according to a survey by Keep Britain Tidy (KBT). “The levels of litter and waste being left has reached unprecedented levels,” one council officer told KBT.
Clean Up Britain received replies to their freedom of information (FOI) requests from 169 councils, representing more than half of councils in England and Wales. The majority – 56% – issued less than one litter fine a week and 16% issued no fines at all in the financial year 2018-19, the most recent year for which the FOI data is available.
The London borough of Hounslow issued the most fines for littering, with 156 per week, and Bristol council was second, with 151 a week. Four other London boroughs were in the top 10 – Merton, Camden, Bexley and Wandsworth. The Wirral, Wolverhampton and Doncaster councils also issued more than 80 litter fines a week
But Harrogate, Stevenage, Bridgend, Derbyshire Dales and South Somerset councils were among those issuing no litter fines at all, while Chorley and King’s Lynn and West Norfolk councils issued a single fine and Stratford-on-Avon council issued two.
Cornwall council, which runs a #LitterlessCornwall campaign also issued two fines in 2018-19. In total, the councils issued 116,000 fines for littering, compared with 2.3m fines for parking offences.
Keep Britain Tidy run training courses for council officers in effective and proportionate enforcement. It seems that more councils need to take advantage of those courses.
