Hundreds fined for dropping litter
ALMOST 700 litterbugs across Nuneaton and Bedworth were hit with fines in just one year – but the hunt goes on to solve enforcement in the future.
It has been revealed that in 2016/17 there were 695 littering £80 Fixed Penalty Notices (FPN) issued across the borough and 29 people went on to be prosecuted for not paying the fine.
Councillor Barry Longden, cabinet member for the environment, released the figures after being quizzed by Cllr Ian Bonner about what the future plans are for education about littering as well as what enforcement plans are in place.
This follows the news, revealed by the Telegraph back at the start of January, that the deal that led to a squad of robocop style litter and dog mess wardens patrolling the streets of the borough was over.
The relationship between Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council and NSL ended, meaning that there is now no dedicated team of litter wardens patrolling the two towns.
But Cllr Longden has said that the council is working with Keep Britain Tidy to undertake street cleansing monitoring, training for waste officers to monitor and grade the litter, which will help pin point hot spot areas to maximise limited resources.
“We are currently exploring environment enforcement options to ensure we offer the best service available to us, either internal provision or entering into another partnership with an external provider who will be able to offer significantly more enforcement options,” he explained.
In terms of education about littering, Cllr Longden said: “Education in schools has been tried and young children respond well, however, when they get older they appear to fall back into old habits.
“The litterers are in the minority and most people either use the bins provided, or take their litter home. It does seem to be a very British disease compared to most of Europe where people seem to have a culture of pride in where they live and are virtually litter free, especially in the towns about the same size of our borough. Irresponsible dog owners only make things worse, unfortunately the law in this area is not very helpful, but we will prosecute offenders every time when they are caught.”