Staff shortage to blame for litter fine drop
NUMBER OF PENALTIES GIVEN OUT DOWN BY NEARLY 50%
LITTER louts in Newcastle are going unpunished because of a shortage of council patrol staff.
New figures have revealed that the number of fines handed out for dropping rubbish in the city has dipped dramatically in recent months.
The number more than halved between September 2018 and June this year, with local authority bosses warning that a lack of enforcement officers is leaving the city in a dirtier state.
Newcastle City Council’s deputy leader, Coun Joyce McCarty, told a cabinet meeting on Monday: “We have had fewer enforcement officers working across the city due to promotions and staff sickness.
“We know that having officers on the street alters the behaviour of people in the city centre and we know that the amount of litter dropped changes when those officers are around.
“We have had fly-tipping and bonfire reports which means officers are investigating that rather than being on the street.”
Between April and June 2018, the council handed out 1,375 fixed penalty notices for littering, then another 1,469 in the following three months.
But that number dipped sharply to just 721 between April and June this year.
A council report states that the number of litter patrol officers has dropped from six to five, and that the remaining staff have been forced to take on extra duties.
A spokesman said: “We had fewer enforcement officers patrolling during quarter one, due to promotion and staff sickness absence. The presence of a uniformed officer changes behaviour, reducing the amount of litter dropped.
“Other offences such as bonfires and fly-tipping increase during the summer months, investigating these can also reduce the amount of officer time spent patrolling.”
At Monday’s meeting, the city’s Liberal Democrat opposition also questioned figures stating that the council successfully makes more than 99.9% of bin collections.
Coun Gareth Kane said: “I find the rates of collection hard to believe unless all of the 0.05% of missed collections are in my Ouseburn ward. I suspect that there may be a problem with the data.”
Labour’s civic centre environment boss, Coun Nick Kemp, said that the council was “incredibly proud” of its bin collection rates.
But he said that there is still work to be done in making sure residents put rubbish in the right bins, after contamination cost the council £500,000 in 2017/18.