Use dashcam footage to report littering, says council

A HOME COUNTIES local authority is asking the public to share dashcam and mobile phone footage of littering offenders so they do not have to confront them directly.

Buckinghamshire county council is inviting members of the public to share images and videos of motorists dumping litter out of their cars.

Council officials will review videos uploaded to its website and issue penalties if the footage shows rubbish being thrown and captures the vehicle’s registration plate.

The car’s registered keeper is liable for any fixed penalties even if the litter was dropped by someone else.

The maximum penalty for people caught littering rose from £150 to £500 earlier this month, the Government said. Councils can use the money to fund roadside clean-ups.

Martin Tett, the Conservative leader of the council, said: “If you chuck a plastic bottle or a half-eaten Chinese meal out of the car window, if we’ve got the number plate and evidence of it happening, we will find you.”

“On our country lanes you will see mile after mile of waste paper, plastic bottles, tin cans all sorts of stuff chucked out of car windows. It’s one of the things people hate the most,” he told The Sunday Times.

“Local government is financially challenged, so we no longer have vast armies of people who go out litter-picking all the time.”

Mr Tett expects the new system to be introduced in August. The council reportedly spends £3.5 million a year on a litter-picking team of 90 people.

Around 2,500 tonnes of waste was collected by its street cleaners last year.

The move comes after National Highways, which maintains England’s motorways and major A-roads, trialled using automated text messages to discourage motorists from dropping litter in laybys.

Under the scheme, drivers pulling over into laybys known as littering hotspots receive automated texts urging them to use bins or take their rubbish home with them.