14th May 2010
A zero tolerance approach to littering in Tonbridge, involving people who litter from moving cars or drop cigarette stubs being issued with fixed penalty notices, is paying dividends for the population of the rural Kent town.
Focusing on litter hot spots in the town centre EHOs from Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council have been working with the police and police community support officers issuing £80 fixed penalty notices to anyone caught littering.
The enforcement teams have just completed a week long operation patrolling the town centre resulting in fixed penalty notices being issued for littering and dog fouling, warnings being issued to children under 16 caught littering and the council following up cases where drivers throw litter from moving cars. The campaign is supported by posters warning of penalties for littering.
According to Phil Beddoes, head of waste and street scene services and an EHP, the strategy is having a visible effect on the town and has been very well received by the community.
‘We are using enforcement to have an educational impact,’ said Mr Beddoes. ‘If one person gets a fixed penalty notice for litter they will talk to friends, partners and all sorts of people and the message gets out through a ripple effect.’
In addition to fast food litter the dropping of cigarette stubs is a particular problem. ‘People do not understand that it is littering. We have thousands of cigarette stubs on the street because the perception of smokers is that it is ok to put out a cigarette by stepping on it,’ says Mr Beddoes. During the campaign week more than 100 stubbies were handed out to smokers outside pubs.
A well-recognised problem for councils is how to tackle litter thrown from cars. Mr Beddoes is working with Lacors and other local authorities to lobby Defra for new legislation to tackle the problem.
In the mean time the borough is being proactive. ‘A lot of litter on our roads is coming from cars,’ explains Mr Beddoes. ‘Where we have the evidence, we are serving fixed penalty notices on the owners of the cars. When a witness gets a registration number we use the DVLA database to check for ownership.’
In 75 per cent of cases the fines are paid. Under proposed new legislation the car owner would be obliged to tell the authority who was driving the car at the time of the offence.
Tonbridge and Malling BC spends over £1m a year on street cleaning. Local surveys reveal that litter and dog fouling are the top issues that concern the community.