Crackdown on litter louts in city hotspots
MARKET Street is Manchester’s main shopping street and probably the busiest part of the city centre.
But next time you’re there, don’t be tempted to throw your rubbish on the ground.
Despite the massive footfall, the council’s dedicated team patrol the area looking out for litter bugs.
And more fines are handed out on Market Street than anywhere else.
Manchester council has handed out 6,610 fixed penalty notices (FPNs) for dropping rubbish around the city from April 2014 to March this year, the M.E.N. can reveal.
This is an average of six per day around the city.
And of those, 1,262 people were given on-the-spot fines for littering on Market Street – almost one in five of all tickets issued.
That is at least one person being fined every day for littering on Market Street.
It’s not the only area they are keeping a close eye on.
Another 139 fines were dished out in the Arndale Centre, while there were also 293 cases in Piccadilly Gardens, 259 on Mosley Street and 207 on Portland Street.
Cross Street, Deansgate and Parker Street – the pedestrianised area near the bus station in Piccadilly Gardens – also featured highly.
And chucking that sweet wrapper could be an expensive mistake as although it does not count as a criminal conviction, the fine is £75.
In total, the numbers of tickets issued for littering have almost doubled during the past three years. In 2014/15, there were only 1,599, rising to 2,050 in 2015/16 and again to 2,961 in 2016/17 with a few days left to go in March. Executive member for neighbourhoods at the council, Coun Nigel Murphy, said: “There is no excuse for littering in our city centre and our dedicated team of officers have the power to issue fines of up to £80 to those caught in the act. “There are nearly 700 bins across the city centre, which is why the vast majority of us, who want to see a clean city centre which we can all be proud of, find these offences completely unacceptable.” So help keep our city clean, tidy and a place to be proud of.”