Derry’s litter wardens are cleaning up the city and are issuing almost four times as many penalty tickets as they did last year, Derry Daily can reveal.
Figures obtained by Derry Daily show for the first eight months of this year (January-August) 340 penalty tickets were issued – compared to only 95 for the last seven months (June-December) of last year.
Commenting on the figures, a Derry Council spokesperson said the dramatic increase was due to a lenient attitude shown to offenders for the first five months of their introduction.
The spokesperson said: “Their initial deployment was principally in an advisory role, highlighting offences to members of the public, advising on responsible litter management and distributing free ‘pocket’ ashtrays, gum wraps etc.
“During this initial period the wardens spoke to several hundred people observed littering, offering advice and guidance and advising that any future incident may result in the issuing of a Fixed Penalty Notice.
“The wardens have, since the beginning of October, moved to enforcing the provisions of the regulations and have been issuing Fixed Penalty Notices (FPNs) to those committing littering offences.”
The spokesperson added: “Since 2012 Council has issued a total of 435 Fixed Penalty Notices with regard to littering and dumping offences. This represents a breakdown of 95 which were issued in 2012 and at total of 340 so far in 2013.”
The spokesperson said wardens continued to “exercise discretion” in all instances taking into account the specific circumstances that gave rise to the offence.
As part of the Council’s initiative to reduce the level of litter on the streets, it has erected over 50 mounted advisory signs and notices across the city, advising members of the presence of litter wardens and the consequences of their actions if they drop litter – the maximum penalty being £75.
The City Council currently spends in the region of £1.6 million per year on street cleansing and indiscriminate dumping.
The spokesperson concluded:”The litter wardens are part of the Council’s long term commitment to proactively improve the cleanliness of the City and region.”
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