$1000 littering fine too much – mayor

mark.quinlivan@stuff.co.nz could see stiffer penalties introduced for the illegal dumping of rubbish.

Simpson said the bill would increase the maximum on-the-spot infringement fines councils can impose for those caught littering from $400 to $1000.

Smith said while he thought there should be a fine for littering, it was always hard collecting the money from people, particularly tourists, as it was actually catching offenders.

He said he was more in favour of educating tourists, and cited a programme called Tiaki – Care for New Zealand, which was launched by Tourism New Zealand at a rural provincial meeting, attended by Smith and council chief executive Suzette van Aswegen in November.

‘‘It’s about respecting environment,’’ Smith said.

‘‘Tourists generally want to look after our

Smith said the Mackenzie’s townships had been left ‘‘reasonably clean’’ during the holiday period.

‘‘People can still make a real mess of the public toilets but we had extra people looking after them.

‘‘Littering is one thing but $1000 is over the top, but at the same time the actually environment.’’ Scott Simpson MP we do need to catch the offenders.’’

Simpson said fines are just one part of the solution.

‘‘Combined with working with councils and changing people’s attitudes, I believe we can reduce the amount of litter left behind and ensure our environment looks better, our wildlife is protected, and our clean, green reputation is upheld.’’

Simpson said it annoyed him having the ‘‘beautiful’’ natural environment ruined by the ‘‘careless and thoughtless actions of lazy litterbugs’’.

‘‘It’s sadly far too common to see people brazenly throwing litter from moving cars, to say nothing of others who dump their rubbish without a thought about the impacts.

‘‘Councils and communities are continuing dealing with the mess left behind by those who would instead litter our countryside than dispose of their rubbish legally and properly.’’

Simpson said with the current maximum infringement fee set at $400, some councils don’t bother issuing fines.

‘‘I hope an increase to an $1000 maximum will change that and send a strong message to litterbugs,’’ he said.