Greenwich gearing up to impose tougher fines for littering

Greenwich council is increasing the fine for littering from £85 to £200 from Monday

Last year, the local authority spent £6million on street cleaning and says its new fixed penalty notice increase aims to encourage behaviour change “so we can keep our neighbourhoods vibrant, safe and attractive.

A council spokesman said: “Littering has a detrimental impact on the environment. Even something as small as a cigarette butt can take years to decompose and be blown into our rivers or consumed by wildlife.

“The council’s efforts to reduce littering are an important part of our work to become carbon neutral by 2030. In implementing this fine increase, we hope to deter members of the public from littering and make our borough a greener and cleaner place to be.”

Littering is defined as a person throwing down, dropping or depositing an item in any public open place, including roads and highways. Any litter should always be thrown away in a public bin or disposed of with other household waste.

Dropped cigarette butts are a very common form of littering. The council says if you need to dispose of cigarette ends, many bins around the borough have an ashtray attached.

From Monday, community safety enforcement officers will be able to stop and issue £200 on-the-spot fines to anyone seen littering in the borough.

They will be supported by a team of externally commissioned support officers who will help to enforce this across the borough. Police officers will also be issuing fines. If paid within 10 days of the fine being issued, the fine will decrease to £100.

Ahead of the increase, officers from the Community Safety Enforcement Team will visit areas of high footfall across Royal Greenwich to engage with members of the public and inform them of the fine increase as well as speaking to them about the impact of littering.

Picture: Pixabay/Hans