Only restoring a sense of respect will stop selfish littering

From: John Rayner, North Ferriby.

I WAS concerned to read Tom Richmond’s column ( The Yorkshire Post, July 25) that “all that is required is ... to link the barcode to ... the purchaser

...” and his suggestion that somehow the Data Protection Act is involved in the authorities’ inability to identify and prosecute litterers.

Firstly, the DPA does not simply prevent disclosure of data – merely that data held must be used only in conformance with pre- declared purposes for which it is to be held with the consent of the individual.

It is entirely within the scope of the Act for an organisation to declare as a purpose a use which would enable the identification of litterers – but not surprisingly few public- facing commercial organisations would do this overtly, expecting their customers to agree knowingly ( assuming they would all read trading T& Cs fully).

So what about ‘ the barcode’? What barcode? Any product wrapper found in litter, if it still shows a barcode, will only identify the product line – perhaps within a specific promotional variant, but certainly not the date or location of purchase, and certainly not the purchaser.

Only an itemised till receipt will link a product to a place and time of purchase, but not to a specific purchaser – although the seller’s records from the serial number of the receipt would hold the full payment account details.

Police already have power to seek warrant for disclosure of such data for criminal investigation purposes. This is the mechanism already used by councils to chase fly tippers ( or rather their clients) on the rare occasions when suitable documentation is found in the tipped waste.

Truly, the way to stop littering is to recover the once widespread respect for community that has very sadly been lost through many social trends across many decades. Personal responsibility is learnt as children, from parents and other respected adults; once that respect is lost, acceptance of anti- selfish lifelessons goes also, and itwill probably take along time and/ or some more draconian approaches to discipline to get it back.

Are we yet seven generations from the first‘ sins of the fathers’?

From: Henry Cobden, Ilkley.

SINCE lockdown, the amount of litter left along the River Wharfe near Ilkley has increased many times over and is depressing. There must be a better way of persuading people to take their rubbish home.