by Rachel Quigley
Local litter louts can continue breathing a pungent sigh of relief after a recent survey revealed that dropping litter in Strabane does not earn you a fine.
That's despite the fact that the same action may incur a £50 fine in other councils of the North. And according to Strabane District Council, this doesn't look likely to change any time soon.
The survey by TIDY NI shows that some councils regard dropping litter as a serious offence whilst others like Strabane, Banbridge and Lisburn have never issued so much as a fine, despite the fact that waste disposal continues to be a major issue.
The survey, commissioned by the Environment and Heritage Service, received responses from only 24 of the 26 councils and the results displayed a huge variation in how councils deal with litter offences.
Belfast came out on top after issuing almost 3,000 Fixed Penalty Notices (FPNs) over the past four years. Derry issued 193 and Omagh issued 40.
Questioned over the lack of action, Malcolm Scott, Chief Technical Officer in Strabane revealed that in the last four years, the Council has focused all its attention on education and raising awareness.
It has written to community groups, and urged residents to give their opinion on proposed Fixed Penalty Notices. So far they haven't received much feedback, he revealed.
In response to why the council haven't issued any penalties and what has taken place since the law changed in 2004, Mr Scott said, "This kind of thing is easier done in bigger cities like Belfast, but it's a bit harder to implement in places like Strabane, many people just won't have the money to pay a £50 fine, and then we have to look at the bigger repercussions of not paying a fine.
"This isn't something that we haven't been looking at, because we have. We just didn't jump at the idea of FPNs immediately as we want to look at other ways to address the issues."
TIDY NI Chief Executive, Ian Cole said the litter issue has implications for local communities.
"If people realise they are not going to get fined for littering then there is no deterrent to prevent them from polluting our streets. If we are to clean up Northern Ireland and make it a more pleasant place to live or visit then councils need to adopt a standardised approach to the problem and make it clear to offenders that their actions will not be tolerated."
Before April 2004, any money that had been taken from the community for litter offences, went straight to the UK's central treasury fund. Since the law was changed, money generated by FPNs is kept by the council and used for the good of the community. Thus the generated revenue from the fines could have been put towards an anti-litter campaign, waste disposal or any other worthy cause within the town.
Speaking to the Chronicle Mr Cole remarked, "Belfast has issued almost 3000 tickets, and at £50 a time, that's a lot of money to spend on the city. If Strabane had been pro-active in handing out these fines, they could have generated a lot of money to spend on the community throughout the last four years."
Council Chairman, Gerard Foley, said, "We have delayed making a decision on the issue of fixed penalty notices because we were keen to ensure that the local community were made aware of the potential for fines first and get people's views prior to implementation of any enforcement policy. Any decision made will be in the best interests of the people of the district."
The council have had four years to come to a decision regarding litter, but as yet nothing has really been decided.
Malcolm Scott says that the council will now be making a bigger effort to reach a decision, which will hopefully be made by June, but believes that the handing out of fines will be a last resort.
