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Litter is socially unacceptable
5:20pm Tuesday 25th March 2008
Comments (5)WHAT a depressing sight the centre of our town is today (Tuesday).
Everywhere you look litter has been carelessly disposed of - most of it just inches away from bins.
The area outside McDonald's is particularly bad - with a bin exactly opposite the new, revamped premises.
It's not all McDonald's wrappers by any means, there are plenty of other items adding to the unsightly mess.
Plastic bottles, sweet wrappers and cardboard coffee cups lying right next to the bins.
Most of the bins are half empty.
Is it really so hard to walk an extra inch or two to throw your litter away?
Or do people really not care less about their own environment?
It seems that a signicant proportion of the population still thinks it is OK to drop litter, even more so when they are in their cars.
I'm assuming (or at least hoping) it's particularly bad today after the Easter break when I imagine council workers who normally do the litter picking have been off and they haven't caught up yet.
Certainly the council has provided a decent amount of litter bins for us all to use.
Most of the litter is associated with fast food and drink.
At the risk of sounding terribly old-fashioned, I was always taught not to eat in the street.
I must confess to an occasional lapse, but even so I certainly wouldn't discard the litter at my feet.
It is an offence to throw down or drop litter - hard to believe when you see the quantity of it.
Council wardens have the power to issue fixed penalty notices to anyone caught littering.
If the guilty party fails to pay they can be prosecuted and fined up to £2,500.
But I'd like to hazard a guess that no one in Warrington has actually been fined or prosecuted for dropping litter. If they have I'd like to hear about it.
So I think it's up to the rest of us - the ones that do care to challenge these litter louts.
If people are prepared to do something - for instance if you witness someone throwing litter, then it is acceptable for members of the public to provide a statement about it then the council can act.
If you as that witness is prepared to stand up in court if required then people can and will be prosecuted.
It's about time we made dropping litter as socially unacceptable as drink driving.
Your Say YourWarrington Guardian
Bill Green, Paddington says...
12:21pm Tue 8 Apr 08
The problem of litter has been with us since I was a lad and yet every year we read in the Guardian that the councils going to get tough on offenders. Clearly these are all just empty words otherwise we wouldnÂ’t have a litter problem and youÂ’d be running stories about those who were fined.
If we look at countries like the US where littering fines are strictly enforced, there isnÂ’t a problem and parents make **** sure that their children understand and respect such laws.
Bill
Bill Green, Paddington says...
12:21pm Tue 8 Apr 08
The problem of litter has been with us since I was a lad and yet every year we read in the Guardian that the councils going to get tough on offenders. Clearly these are all just empty words otherwise we wouldnÂ’t have a litter problem and youÂ’d be running stories about those who were fined.
If we look at countries like the US where littering fines are strictly enforced, there isnÂ’t a problem and parents make **** sure that their children understand and respect such laws.
Bill
Bill Green, Paddington says...
12:21pm Tue 8 Apr 08
The problem of litter has been with us since I was a lad and yet every year we read in the Guardian that the councils going to get tough on offenders. Clearly these are all just empty words otherwise we wouldnÂ’t have a litter problem and youÂ’d be running stories about those who were fined.
If we look at countries like the US where littering fines are strictly enforced, there isnÂ’t a problem and parents make **** sure that their children understand and respect such laws.
Bill
Bill Green, Paddington says...
12:21pm Tue 8 Apr 08
The problem of litter has been with us since I was a lad and yet every year we read in the Guardian that the councils going to get tough on offenders. Clearly these are all just empty words otherwise we wouldnÂ’t have a litter problem and youÂ’d be running stories about those who were fined.
If we look at countries like the US where littering fines are strictly enforced, there isnÂ’t a problem and parents make **** sure that their children understand and respect such laws.
Bill
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Bill Green, Paddington says...
12:21pm Tue 8 Apr 08
The problem of litter has been with us since I was a lad and yet every year we read in the Guardian that the councils going to get tough on offenders. Clearly these are all just empty words otherwise we wouldn’t have a litter problem and you’d be running stories about those who were fined.
If we look at countries like the US where littering fines are strictly enforced, there isn’t a problem and parents make **** sure that their children understand and respect such laws.
Bill