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From 1 September 2009 Environmental Enforcement Officers from the Council and Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) in Stevenage will issue Fixed Penalty Notices for a wide range of offences, including dropping litter, gum and cigarette butts, fly-posting, graffiti and failing to clear dog faeces. The fixed penalty fine will be £75.00, or £50.00 if paid within 14 days.

This is the first time that Fixed Penalty Notices have been issued in Stevenage for litter and the aim of this new initiative is to cut the 2,480 tonnes of litter currently collected in the town every year.

Littering is a criminal offence and a penalty notice gives offenders a way of avoiding a criminal record and a fine of up to £2,500 as no further action is taken if the fine is paid within the specified time, with a reduced amount if paid within 10 days.

Cigarette butts

Cut down

Joan Lloyd, the Borough Council's Executive Member for Resources told ����ý Three Counties Radio why the council were doing this.

“We have to pick up nearly 2,500 tonnes of litter in Stevenage every year which costs the Council Tax payers in Stevenage £1 million” she said.

“Every penny counts, so we want to cut down on the amount of rubbish we have to pick up.

“We’ve been spending some time persuading people to bin their rubbish in our town centre, particularly cigarette butts and chewing gum and things like that, and we’ve had quite good support from the people, so we’ve decided to go ahead and start fining people if they continue to keep dropping it after the 1 September.”

Pilot

The Council have already tried to help matters by providing little tins for cigarette butts and gum stickers on lamp posts for people to put their chewing gum on, but the feeling is that they still need to do more – and the result is this pilot scheme.

“We’ve tried nicely nicely with them, now we’re going to try seeing how this goes” continued Joan.

“It’s only a pilot scheme but the response we’ve had so far from the softly softly approach is that it’s a good idea and we should be doing it.

“We’re not just doing it to raise money, it’s not a money making scheme” she added.

“The money from fines will have to pay for the people collecting it and any surplus would go to helping us pick up the litter so it will effectively cut down the cost of clearing it.

“Hopefully we will have less litter to pick up as well, which will cut down the cost, which will benefit the people of Stevenage.

“We want people to take a pride in their town and help us keep Stevenage tidy. We recognise that people have a choice on whether or not to drop litter; on the spot fines will help to make people more aware of their responsibilities and at the same time keep our streets cleaner.”