It used to be that any UK subject would confront a litter lout by picking up strewn items and handing them back. This was enough to embarrass the culprit. No more. You face a tirade of abuse that makes such action uncomfortable or impossible. So, instead, we have to have civil enforcement officers...
There's almost universal condemnation following news that a Rhuthun/Ruthin pensioner was fined by council enforcement officers—or in this case we understand its agents—for allegedly dropping litter. The pensioner claims it was by accident and even unbeknownst to her. The town has supported the pensioner's view and has even encouraged people to contribute towards her £75 fine.
If this was an accident, a genuine mistake, then the publicity it's generated puts the council very much on the back foot. If the pensioner didn't realise she'd dropped her till receipt then it has unstitched all the good work the council is doing to deal with litter and worse issues.
It again highlights a particular problem for Denbighshire council. Not only does it rate itself as the best council in Wales, it is the council holding the highest number of top quartile positions. It has a good reputation in Bae Caerdydd Bay. But, it somehow fails to convert this in terms of local public endearment. This is something of a dichotomy. School closures, green bins (that turned out to be a storm in a council officer's tea break) and care home closures aren't helping, even though such decisions are thrust upon the council by outside forces. Then, social media tends to whip things up.
Rhuthun itself doesn't actually have much of a litter problem and long may that continue. We need, for example, to be thankful for the team of operatives who, long before we rise, tidy up efficiently each Saturday & Sunday morning after the night before. But other towns do have a problem. Just glance over the former church institute's low wall at Dinbych's Pwll y Grawys/Lenten Pool (below) and you'll see why we need enforcement.
A related problem that from time to time surfaces in Rhuthun is something else altogether. The same enforcement officers deal with it and it's dog dirt. Periodically, it also makes headlines in the local newspaper. We're not just talking recently. It's been a universal source of news on and off for decades. Believe me.
Returning to the topic in hand (excuse the pun), stories of innocent pensioners fined for indiscriminate littering when this was actually an accident aren't helping the cause.
Yet, from the very start, the council has stated that it was right to issue a penalty. The enforcement officer was wearing body CCTV. Said a council spokesman, 'We can only act on the evidence we have. This matter has been reviewed and the council stands by the decision to issue a fixed penalty'.
'We can only act on the evidence we have' is an interesting phrase. The council is able to use its discretion (in March 2014, it reported that it did so 66 times in the preceding 15 months). Yet, the council isn't doing so in this case. Could it therefore be that the council has evidence that actually proves the woman wilfully dropped litter? Perhaps she simply screwed up the receipt into a ball and jettisoned it. In the light of the council's statement, we at least need to consider the possibility. Of course, we will never actually know, for the council cannot release the footage because of data protection rules. But you do have to wonder.
*If* deliberate, this won't be the first time that Rhuthun residents have jumped to the wrong conclusion. Remember the outcry when an ambulance crew called to The Venue took a woman home. It transpired that they were removing her from immediate potential danger and a number of people, including some community leaders, had to back pedal furiously.
Rather than the litter penalty being a case of bad publicity, maybe we could use this as a reminder that we should all think twice before lazily discarding rubbish. After all, littering and dog fouling crop up consistently as public concerns. And both actually feature as police concerns, too, especially but not exclusively dog dirt.
An example of how much litter is strewn (including discarded cigarette butts) appeared in a council report of March 2014. In the preceding 15 months, civil enforcement had garnered £337,000 in fines, with uncollected income of £140,000. These are the ones caught: probably the tip of the iceberg. Over half of this was in Y Rhyl. Weekend 'problematic areas' as identified by the council included Cae Ddol.
And the positive thing to emerge from this story is that people in Rhuthun care enough to pay the penalty. Unless the accused failed to pay within 14 days that, though, should've been £50, rather than £75...
There's almost universal condemnation following news that a Rhuthun/Ruthin pensioner was fined by council enforcement officers—or in this case we understand its agents—for allegedly dropping litter. The pensioner claims it was by accident and even unbeknownst to her. The town has supported the pensioner's view and has even encouraged people to contribute towards her £75 fine.
It again highlights a particular problem for Denbighshire council. Not only does it rate itself as the best council in Wales, it is the council holding the highest number of top quartile positions. It has a good reputation in Bae Caerdydd Bay. But, it somehow fails to convert this in terms of local public endearment. This is something of a dichotomy. School closures, green bins (that turned out to be a storm in a council officer's tea break) and care home closures aren't helping, even though such decisions are thrust upon the council by outside forces. Then, social media tends to whip things up.
Rhuthun itself doesn't actually have much of a litter problem and long may that continue. We need, for example, to be thankful for the team of operatives who, long before we rise, tidy up efficiently each Saturday & Sunday morning after the night before. But other towns do have a problem. Just glance over the former church institute's low wall at Dinbych's Pwll y Grawys/Lenten Pool (below) and you'll see why we need enforcement.
Returning to the topic in hand (excuse the pun), stories of innocent pensioners fined for indiscriminate littering when this was actually an accident aren't helping the cause.
Yet, from the very start, the council has stated that it was right to issue a penalty. The enforcement officer was wearing body CCTV. Said a council spokesman, 'We can only act on the evidence we have. This matter has been reviewed and the council stands by the decision to issue a fixed penalty'.
'We can only act on the evidence we have' is an interesting phrase. The council is able to use its discretion (in March 2014, it reported that it did so 66 times in the preceding 15 months). Yet, the council isn't doing so in this case. Could it therefore be that the council has evidence that actually proves the woman wilfully dropped litter? Perhaps she simply screwed up the receipt into a ball and jettisoned it. In the light of the council's statement, we at least need to consider the possibility. Of course, we will never actually know, for the council cannot release the footage because of data protection rules. But you do have to wonder.
*If* deliberate, this won't be the first time that Rhuthun residents have jumped to the wrong conclusion. Remember the outcry when an ambulance crew called to The Venue took a woman home. It transpired that they were removing her from immediate potential danger and a number of people, including some community leaders, had to back pedal furiously.
Rather than the litter penalty being a case of bad publicity, maybe we could use this as a reminder that we should all think twice before lazily discarding rubbish. After all, littering and dog fouling crop up consistently as public concerns. And both actually feature as police concerns, too, especially but not exclusively dog dirt.
An example of how much litter is strewn (including discarded cigarette butts) appeared in a council report of March 2014. In the preceding 15 months, civil enforcement had garnered £337,000 in fines, with uncollected income of £140,000. These are the ones caught: probably the tip of the iceberg. Over half of this was in Y Rhyl. Weekend 'problematic areas' as identified by the council included Cae Ddol.
And the positive thing to emerge from this story is that people in Rhuthun care enough to pay the penalty. Unless the accused failed to pay within 14 days that, though, should've been £50, rather than £75...