Bird feeding littering FPN

spendsmartsage

Hi, I'd like some advice on what to do about a Fixed Penalty Notice that my father received recently. He went for a walk into a nearby park, sat on one of the park benches around a pond garden to get his breath back (he's 75 and has mobility issues), and while he was there threw down small pieces of less than one slice of bread (he brought with him one and a half slices). Two enforcement officers were standing nearby who then approached him while he was sitting on the bench and began to issue him with a FPN for littering despite my father's protests.

I appealed on my father's behalf, where one of my arguments was that there isn't enough signage in the park explaining this rule. Of the 7 entrances to the park, 5 have entrance signs, as does the pond garden and playground, and none of them has anything about bird feeding. There is only a single notice outside the gate of one of these entrances, an entrance that isn't used by my father, which says this:

"DO NOT LITTER
Littering is an offence under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 and offenders could be fined up to £120

DO NOT FEED THE BIRDS
Littering is an offence under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 and offenders could be fined up to £120"

They rejected my appeal, mentioned how such an act can attract vermin, and basically said you either pay up or, in their words, 'wait for the Court summons to have your day in Court'. Their response was filled with spelling and grammatical errors.

Anyway, I'm not sure what to do now. The law (Environmental Protection Act 1990, Section 87) that my father broke according to them is this:

“A person is guilty of an offence if he throws down, drops or otherwise deposits any litter in any place to which this section applies and leaves it.”

However, my father threw down pieces of half a slice of bread, where every single morsel was consumed by the pigeons within seconds, and he never left the bench - the two officers approached him almost immediately. I did not make these arguments in my appeal.

My father doesn't want the stress of going to court even though I think there are clear grounds to have the fine dismissed (but maybe I'm wrong?), and says that I should pay the fine and move on. What do you think?

user1977

Legally, he's bang to rights. Littering is an offence even in areas which have absolutely no signage about it. But I would very much doubt it would be taken to court if he disputes it.

Momanns

Contact your MP asap and might be one local press would be interested in

sheramber

Many councils have brought in bylaws prohibiting feeding pigeons, which are classed as vermin.

Okell

So they're prosecuting under s87 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 (legislation.gov.uk) and not any local byelaw?

I'm not convinced your father has committed an offence but neither am I convinced that he hasn't.

Assuming the bread is litter* he's certainly dropped or deposited it, but I don't know if the council could prove that he had "left" it.  It isn't clear whether the word "leaves" in s87 means (1) that your father left it on the ground  or whether it means (2) that he left the place where he dropped it.

I think I might be reluctant to fight it and would just pay the FPN - but it's up to him.

If I were you I'd advise him to stop doing this anyway.  Pigeons are a menace and feeding them only encourages them


*The legislation doesn't give an exhaustive definition of litter.  It simply says that it includes cigarette and cigar butts abd similar, and chewing gum and similar.

spendsmartsage

Momanns said:

Contact your MP asap and might be one local press would be interested in

There were a couple of recent stories about a similar case. I can't seem to post links, but you can find it if you search: “Derby woman left 'disgusted' after bird-feeding fine”, “Derby: Woman loses appeal against £150 bird feeding fine”.

The differences that I can see is that there were multiple signs (that also explain why bird feeding is discouraged), there's a page on the council's website specifically about bird feeding (there's nothing about bird feeding on my council's website), and it seems like she might have thrown down a whole loaf of bread. Nonetheless, the fact she got the local press involved and her appeal was still rejected doesn't fill me with confidence.

A few days ago I went to the council civic centre to see if I could speak face-to-face to someone from their environmental team about this - if not to have the fine dismissed then to at least encourage them to put up clear signs in the park as I'm sure the majority of people are unaware how bird feeding could be a finable offence. But I was told everyone from that team work from home and so if I wanted to speak to anyone the most I could do is send an email requesting a phone conversation!

I also spoke to a policeman about this in the high street. Basically, he said this kind of thing is coming more from the council than them, and what my father probably should have done is refused to give his details. Then the enforcement officers would either have given up or if the police were to get involved then they most likely wouldn't have taken this matter up further. But it's a bit difficult for my father of 75 years of age in that situation to have done that.

Aylesbury_Duck

Momanns said:

Contact your MP asap and might be one local press would be interested in

I'm sure they will be, for clickbait, but I suspect all that will happen is lots of comments agreeing with the authorities and an appearance in the Angry People in Local Newspapers facebook page (which I'd highly recommend visiting, by the way - there are some cracking stories of self-entitlement on there.)

Possibly not attention OP or their father would welcome.

Okell

spendsmartsage said:

... I appealed on my father's behalf, where one of my arguments was that there isn't enough signage in the park explaining this rule. Of the 7 entrances to the park, 5 have entrance signs, as does the pond garden and playground, and none of them has anything about bird feeding. There is only a single notice outside the gate of one of these entrances, an entrance that isn't used by my father, which says this:

"DO NOT LITTER
Littering is an offence under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 and offenders could be fined up to £120

DO NOT FEED THE BIRDS
Littering is an offence under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 and offenders could be fined up to £120"...

spendsmartsage said:

Momanns said:

Contact your MP asap and might be one local press would be interested in

There were a couple of recent stories about a similar case. I can't seem to post links, but you can find it if you search: “Derby woman left 'disgusted' after bird-feeding fine”, “Derby: Woman loses appeal against £150 bird feeding fine”.

The differences that I can see is that there were multiple signs (that also explain why bird feeding is discouraged), there's a page on the council's website specifically about bird feeding (there's nothing about bird feeding on my council's website), ...

Further to my earlier post, the presence or absence of signs and/or warnings is irrelevant.  Your father - and everybody else - is presumed to be aware that littering is a criminal offence.  Just like any other criminal offence that you don't need to be warned not to commit.

I think your only argument would be that your father had not "left" either the litter or the location.  But, personally, I don't think that would succeed.  If he'd picked the bread up before it had been eaten he might have been able to say that he hadn't left it.  But he didn't pick it up.  He left it for the pigeons to eat it.

I think he'd be better off just paying the FPN

Contacting his MP would be a waste of time and the MP can't do anything anyway.

If you contact the press you might find that more people approve of the ban on feeding the pigeons than don't...

TELLIT01

I won't comment on the rights and wrongs of treating bird feeding as littering, but many authorities have the same rules.

Okell

spendsmartsage said:

Momanns said:

Contact your MP asap and might be one local press would be interested in

... I also spoke to a policeman about this in the high street. Basically, he said this kind of thing is coming more from the council than them, and what my father probably should have done is refused to give his details. Then the enforcement officers would either have given up or if the police were to get involved then they most likely wouldn't have taken this matter up further. But it's a bit difficult for my father of 75 years of age in that situation to have done that.

I also wouldn't place any reliance on what this police officer told you.  He appears to be saying that your father should have committed a second criminal offence by refusing to identify himself to the Enforcement Officer.

Oh dear...   

spendsmartsage

Okell said:

Further to my earlier post, the presence or absence of signs and/or warnings is irrelevant.  Your father - and everybody else - is presumed to be aware that littering is a criminal offence.  Just like any other criminal offence that you don't need to be warned not to commit.

I think your only argument would be that your father had not "left" either the litter or the location.  But, personally, I don't think that would succeed.  If he'd picked the bread up before it had been eaten he might have been able to say that he hadn't left it.  But he didn't pick it up.  He left it for the pigeons to eat it.

I think he'd be better off just paying the FPN

Contacting his MP would be a waste of time and the MP can't do anything anyway.

If you contact the press you might find that more people approve of the ban on feeding the pigeons than don't...

Looking up this kind of thing online, I did notice a lot of those kind of comments agreeing with the authorities too. I don't necessarily disagree with many of them either. It's just that in this instance, and it might be because it's my father so I can't see things as clear, I struggle to see how this is worthy of such an offence. Elderly man, uses a walking stick, encouraged by doctors to regularly take a walk, needs to sit down at a park bench to regain his breath, undertakes a simple pleasure of feeding some birds for a minute or two with a very small amount of bread before proceeding to walk back home. A completely innocent action that apparently merits not a warning but an immediate £150 fine.

I appreciate the advice and it's helped to clarify things for me, particularly the strength of any kind of arguments I might make if I decided to take things further. I've decided to listen to my father's repeated requests and pay the fine and move on. Thanks.