Let’s clobber the litter louts with a £200 fine Council asks government to get tough
Councillors have called on the Scottish Government to hit people who litter with a £200 fine, following claims that an increase to £ 100 wouldn’t “go far enough”.
Tory group leader James MacLaren asked Renfrewshire Council to support hiking the fixed penalty notice from £80 by a further £20 to clamp down on littering.
However, elected members said an on-the-spot fine of £100 wasn’t high enough.
Speaking at a full council meeting, SNP Councillor Will Mylet said: “Raising it by £20 doesn’t go far enough. I want it raised to £200.”
Councillor MacLaren said it was time to get tougher on people dropping rubbish.
He said: “£200 and an arm would be even better. I’m only joking but we do need to strengthen the council’s ability to issue fines and ensure fines are paid.”
The elected member for Bishopton, Bridge of Weir and Langbank said it’s time to get the message out that “this is not right and it’s not acceptable to litter or flytip”.
He asked officers about the possibility of dashcam footage to catch perpetrators in the act.
Chris Dalrymple, communities and regulatory manager, said: “I believe we can’t use dash came footage.”
Between October, 2017, and September 30 of this year, a total of 89 fines were issued by the council for littering. However, only 52 had been paid.
During the same period, seven of 18 fines issued for dog fouling were paid.
Labour Councillor Karen Kennedy asked: “What is being done to chase up people who are not paying fines?”
Mr Dalrymple explained: “Where someone doesn’t pay the fine, we report them to the Procurator Fiscal.
“For dog fouling we go as far as we possibly can with our debt recovery agency.”
SNP Councillor Cathy McEwan, convener of Infrastructure, Land and Environment Policy Board, accused the opposition elected member of being “negative” by raising the statistics at the meeting.
She said: “Councillor Kennedy, negative, negative, negative. What about some positives? What about our fantastic Rapid Response Team and what about Team Up to Clean Up? Some positives.”
The council will now write to the Scottish Government and ask ministers to implement an increase to £200 for fixed penalty notices on littering.