|
On the spot fines to tackle
litter in Liverpool
A crackdown on litter is beginning in
Liverpool with the launch of a new team to issue fines to those who drop rubbish
on the City's streets. It follows Mayor Joe Anderson's recent pledge to tackle
the issue of environmental crime and those responsible by significantly
increasing the 277 fixed penalty notices (FPNs) issued over in 2016.
The City Council is running a 12 month pilot with Kingdom, which works with
local authorities across the country to tackle environmental crime. They will
have 17 enforcement officers on the streets of the City Centre and district
centres equipped with body cameras issuing £80 penalty notices to those they see
dropping litter or allowing their dogs to foul.
Proceeds from the on the spot fines will be reinvested in tackling environmental
activities such as tackling litter, graffiti and fly posting.
Street cleaning currently costs Liverpool Council Tax payers £8 million per year
and last year more than 6,500 tonnes of waste was collected by street cleansing
teams.
Councillor Steve Munby, Cabinet member for neighbourhoods, said:- "Our
City is not just the place where we all live and work, but also a magnet for
millions of tourists and visitors from around the world. Sadly, I am sometimes
ashamed when I see the way in which a minority of people treat our streets as a
dumping ground.
We're doing our bit to keep the streets tidy by introducing 200 larger litter
bins across Liverpool and piloting an extension of street cleansing hours in the
City Centre. As part of that we expect people to help us keep the City tidy as
well.
Dropping litter is not about keeping a street cleanser in a job. It is
anti social behaviour and blights communities. Making our streets look scruffy
just because you're too lazy to find a bin is just not acceptable and we're not
going to tolerate it.
We're saying enough is enough and we need people to take pride in our City. This
new team will take a zero tolerance approach to dropping litter and will hit
those responsible hard in the pocket.
This is just 1 of a series of measures we are taking to make Liverpool cleaner
and send out a strong message that environmental crime will be tackled, whether
it's litter, dog fouling or flytipping. Using Kingdom will enable us to redeploy
our staff to dealing with some of the more complex environmental crime issues
such as tracking down those responsible for fly tipping."
Michael Fisher, Environmental Protection Director at Kingdom, said:-
"Kingdom are delighted to be working in partnership with Liverpool City Council
with the aim of reducing the amount of litter and dog excrement currently
deposited on the streets and public places in Liverpool.
We will be deploying trained and experienced teams to join forces with the
Council's in house teams to deploy in identified hotspots in an intelligence led
manner. Whilst enforcing the appropriate legislation we envisage a positive
knock on effect of educating those who would commit these offences and thereby
reduce the amount of litter unlawfully deposited and this will result in the
City being safer, greener and cleaner."
The launch of the new enforcement team follows a recent request from the Mayor
for a series of measures to drive a change in behaviour in those residents that
fail to responsibly manage their waste and other environmental crime.
The City Council is doubling the number of teams tackling fly tipping and
improving four foot alleyways to improve conditions for storage of waste as well
as introducing larger recycling sacks, expanding weekly recycling services for
City Centre apartment blocks and piloting weekly recycling.
Last week, 2 serial fly tippers who were caught dumping tonnes of illegal trade
waste, including asbestos, yards from a children's dance school were jailed
following a surveillance operation by the Council and Merseyside Police. |
