Rubbish Roundup 7th January

Rubbish Roundup 7^th January

People who drop litter in Fife could be faced with a £100 fine after the councillor supported a proposal by the Scottish Parliament to increase fixed penalties.  

The penalty is currently £80, and a conservative councillor voiced his support for the proposals, saying that litter is a blight on Scottish towns and the countryside. He added that there was a need to educate people about litter and find a better way to administrate fines. His view was backed by a fellow conservative councillor who said that hitting people in the pocket was the best way to show them that the council take littering very seriously. However, an SNP councillor disagreed, saying that simply increasing the fine would not matter if people weren’t caught because of the limited resources many councils dedicate to litter enforcement and she proposed that councils look at a wider range of actions to tackle littering.

Barking and Dagenham council has launched a crackdown on litter in a bid to become the ‘cleanliness capital’ of London. The council currently spends £380,000 per year cleaning up fly-tipping.

A team of 10 officers will patrol the streets and issue £75 on-the-spot fines to litter bugs. The council have also launched a series on You Tube, called ‘grime crime’ which aims to identify and shame fly-tippers that have been caught on CCTV.

The scheme launched at the end of November, and enforcement officers issued 45 fines in the first week. People who don’t pay the fine within two weeks will be named on the council website and they could face court action, and a fine of up to £2,500. Any fly-tipped rubbish will be looked at for evidence of who it belongs to, and CCTV footage of perpetrators will be posted on a ‘wall of shame’ on the council’s website. Getting information from the public is going to be a big part of the crackdown.

Residents say that although the plan sounds good, they don’t think it’s working because there aren’t enough public bins or an adequate refuse collection service.

The hardy souls who are members of the Friends of Barry Beaches held a beach litter pick on Boxing Day. They ventured out to burn off a few Christmas calories and clean up the local beach, though they did get a mince pie afterwards for their trouble. The organisers thanked Keep Wales Tidy, Waitrose and Viridor for their support and financial assistance in the past year, and paid tribute to their volunteers who work tirelessly to keep the beach clean, safe, and welcoming for everyone.