Litter fine question

zoob

Not disputing or defending what I did, but today by mistake I dropped a small bit of litter on the ground in a shopping centre car park by mistake, a council official approached me and asked if I was aware of what I’d done and I replied yes
He then proceeded to take my details and said I’d get a letter in the post and a fine to pay
My question is, can councils officials give out fines on a private car park?

RikM

Litter (Northern Ireland) 1994 says:

Offence of leaving litter
3.—(1) If any person throws down, drops or otherwise deposits in, into or from any place open to the air, and leaves, any thing whatsoever in such circumstances as to cause, or contribute to, or tend to lead to, the defacement by litter of any such place, he shall, subject to paragraph (2), be guilty of an offence.

(2) It shall be a defence for a person charged with an offence under paragraph (1) to prove that the depositing and leaving of the thing was—

(a)authorised by law, or
(b)done with the consent of the owner or other person or authority having control of the place in or into which that thing was deposited.
(3) A person who is guilty of an offence under this Article shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 4 on the standard scale.

(4) A district council, with a view to promoting the abatement of litter, may take such steps as the council thinks appropriate for making the effect of paragraph (3) known to the public in its district.

Which is fairly clear in stating "any place open to the air"...

CEON44

I wish they were as quick to fine the dog owners who let their mutts s**t all over the place and dont pick it up

pogofish

What they can do on private property all depends on the wayleave granted by the individual land owner/operator. IIRC, flytipping is the only litter related offence they have an absolute right to enter private property to act on.

So you should maybe contact the shopping centre to see the exact terms of their agreement.

RikM

That would fall under the "consent of the owner" clause in the law... So yes, if the shopping centre says you're allowed to drop litter... (think that's likely?)

Zola.

People who litter on purpose are scum.

Missmarie

Previous reply is awful. I got a £50 fine at Glasgow Central cause I threw the cigarette down. They don'thave any bins at the station for bomb reasons.

I wrote to Glasgow and said I came out the Somerfield Supermarket and dropped it by accident. They wrote off the fine.

Zola.

Missmarie wrote: »

Previous reply is awful. I got a £50 fine at Glasgow Central cause I threw the cigarette down. They don'thave any bins at the station for bomb reasons.

I wrote to Glasgow and said I came out the Somerfield Supermarket and dropped it by accident. They wrote off the fine.

You could put it out and put the cig butt in a tissue and in your bag if they dont have a bin nearby.

In Japan they typically don't have bins in the street or in stations (except bottle and paper recycling), they take their rubbish home with them and dispose of it responsibly.

Would you throw a used cigarette on your bedroom floor?
Don't try and justify it.

spadoosh

Missmarie wrote: »

Previous reply is awful. I got a £50 fine at Glasgow Central cause I threw the cigarette down. They don'thave any bins at the station for bomb reasons.

I wrote to Glasgow and said I came out the Somerfield Supermarket and dropped it by accident. They wrote off the fine.

If somewhere doesnt have a toilet do you crap where you want too?

RikM

The thing I didn't know, before looking at this: littering is a criminal offence in NI... Left to local authorities to enforce, but still... Chalk it up with jaywalking.

qwert_yuiop

RikM wrote: »

. Chalk it up with jaywalking.

Don’t.
It’s only an offence to cross the road if you cause an accident. There’s also some caveat about it having been clearly witnessed by a police officer, so jaywalking doesn’t really exist in NI ( and definitely doesn’t exist in England).