Litterbugs taught expensive lesson

Owen Bassett from Caterham in Surrey and Adolphus Bell from Beckenham in south east London were both caught dropping half-smoked cigarettes on the pavement by the council's anti-litter squad.

Both were given fixed penalty notices that required them to pay an £80 fine within 28 days. This amount is discounted to £55 if settled within 10 days.

However both men failed to pay their fines and as a result they were hauled before magistrates who imposed much stiffer penalties.

Mr Bassett, who had been caught littering outside the main entrance to Clapham Junction station was fined £120, ordered to pay court costs of £100, and a victim's surcharge of £15.

Mr Adolphus, who was spotted dropping a 'fag end' outside Balham tube station was handed the same quadrupled financial punishment.

The council's environment spokesman Cllr Jonathan Cook said: "These will no doubt have ended up being the most expensive cigarettes these two men have ever smoked.

"But they have only themselves to blame. Firstly they should never have dropped their waste on the ground and secondly they should have paid up when they needed to. At £55 it would have still been a costly cigarette never mind four times that price.

"Discarded butts, matches, empty packets and their wrappers cost local council tax payers tens of thousands a year to clean up, and according to the environmental watchdog Keep Britain Tidy, this is fast becoming England's biggest litter problem with 78 per cent of urban streets affected.

"Our simple message to people is that you can easily avoid being given a fine - and avoid harming the environment - by simply putting your rubbish in a litter bin.

"There are plenty of these across the borough, especially in busy places like town centres and outside stations, so there is no excuse to drop litter. Most have special metal plates on the top which smokers can use to stub out cigarettes before depositing them safely in the bin."

The council's ongoing efforts to tackle litter - especially in the borough's town centres - has led to some significant successes.

Last year the amount of waste and litter picked up from town centres fell by more than nine per cent.

This is being attributed to better public education and enforcement programmes and also to the expansion of more efficient arrangements for the collection of commercial waste from shops.   
 
The quality of the council's work in educating the public to not drop litter - and its work in penalising those that do - also won a Gold award last year from the London-wide Capital Clean-up campaign.

And the council's work in picking up litter and sweeping our streets saw the number of litter and flytip complaints from members of the public fall to their lowest level last year for more than a decade.

ENDS