Fined for littering

philatio

Similar to the OP.

There is no tip next to the spare land at the back of my house.
Does this mean that I can just dump my old sofa there?

Thanks in advance.

bod1467

boliston

I'm not a cigarette smoker (only smoke cigars so unlikely to be smoking them in the street) but do these council officials have powers to take personal details? What happens if you ignore one of these people? Can they arrest you or would laying a hand on you be assault?

AlanCarter

boliston wrote: »

I'm not a cigarette smoker (only smoke cigars so unlikely to be smoking them in the street) but do these council officials have powers to take personal details? What happens if you ignore one of these people? Can they arrest you or would laying a hand on you be assault?

They have the power to demand your details and it is an offence not to provide them. However they do not have a power to detain you, which is kind of pointless unless they can get a PCSO or Police Officer to attend before you can do one.

[Deleted User]

Even if there are no litter bins for miles, it is still an offense to drop cigarette butts. You are supposed to put it out and put it in your pocket or carry something to put it in with you. Seriously.

It happened to me. I was very stressed and inspite of normally being very hot on not being a litter bug I did drop a butt outside a shop because I was afraid of losing my place in an appointment queue. I was not thinking straight and behaved in a way I wouldn't normally. For some strange reason all I could think of was not losing my appointment that I'd already waited some time for (one of these cheap hairdressing places, I'd waited ages to be able to afford this even.., needless to say i couldn't afford to have my hair done for a while after this). It was one of my 'stressy all over the place' days.

I actually went completely into one when the litter officer told me I was going to be charged £80. That's how stressed I was (it turns out I have ASD etc). But I did drop the butt, I had no defence. I paid the fine that day, even though it meant I was very short of money and the council was getting £2million because of the new litter laws. I broke the law. Done deal. There is no defence. Even now I stress about pulling a tissue out of my pocket and something else coming out and falling to the floor and unintentionally littering. It does happen. And people have been fined for it. So I even go into my pockets with great care nowadays.

If you google butt littering or anything similiar, this will be confirmed.

marliepanda

deannatrois wrote: »

I actually went completely into one when the litter officer told me I was going to be charged £80. That's how stressed I was (it turns out I have ASD etc). But I did drop the butt, I had no defence. I paid the fine that day, even though it meant I was very short of money and the council was getting £2million because of the new litter laws. I broke the law. Done deal. There is no defence. Even now I stress about pulling a tissue out of my pocket and something else coming out and falling to the floor and unintentionally littering. It does happen. And people have been fined for it. So I even go into my pockets with great care nowadays.

I can see that you are accepting the fine, but what does the bold have to do with it? Do you think the council is able to clear up litter and mess for free? Now they can at least fund their clean up with those who choose to make the mess.

boliston

£80 does seem quite high for one cigarette end as it's almost as much as a speeding fine or using a mobile while driving - I'd have thought something like £25 would be more appropriate in terms of harm caused

pendragon_arther

Do councils still employ road sweepers? If so why if they've got these cretins going around spying on people, hiding sometimes, just waiting to pounce? Littering is bad and I never do so nor my kids it's the upbringing, but sometimes one can unintentionally drop something without knowing.

Silver-Surfer_2

pendragon_arther wrote: »

Do councils still employ road sweepers? If so why if they've got these cretins going around spying on people, hiding sometimes, just waiting to pounce? Littering is bad and I never do so nor my kids it's the upbringing, but sometimes one can unintentionally drop something without knowing.

Maybe you can, but in this case it wasn't unintentional.

sheramber

some councils contract a private company to enforce littering legislation. Others will use their own employees who are authorised enforcement officers.

Your council website may have details of who they use.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/fixed-penalty-notices-issuing-and-enforcement-by-councils