People caught littering across North East Lincolnshire were fined over £86,000 by the Council’s enforcement teams in 2023.
202 people were found guilty of littering on the borough’s streets at magistrates courts with each offender paying £428 on average.
Their fines totalled £44,620 with costs and victim surcharges accounting for a further £41,909. Fines were issued throughout the year by the Waste Investigations Support and Enforcement (WISE) team in partnership with the City of Doncaster Council. This comes after Waste Investigations Support and Enforcement (WISE) team started patrols in the borough on 1st December.
Offenders were made to pay a £220 fine with costs and the surcharge ranging anywhere from £34 to £180.
Those found guilty of littering are dealt with via the Single Justice Procedure (SJP) which allows magistrates courts to deal with minor offences more efficiently and quickly.
Here, a single magistrate and legal adviser can determine punishment for non-imprisonable offences such as littering or watching TV without a licence.
Between January 2022 and January 2024, 700,000 criminal cases were completed through this process across the country. These cases do not require the defendant to appear in person, allowing them to plead online.
Ultimately, this speeds up the process and allows for large scale offences, such as littering, to be dealt with quickly and easily.
Councillor Ron Shepherd, Portfolio Holder of Safer and Stronger Communities, believes these figures are a testament to the hard work of the WISE enforcement team.
“Over 200 people being found guilty of littering shows just how hard our colleagues are working to stamp out what is a massive issue.
“As a Council, we are committed to improving the borough’s environment by keeping the streets clean and maintaining the area as somewhere everyone can enjoy.
“We advocate a zero-tolerance model on issues like littering and are focused on providing quality enforcement to ensure we can successfully tackle these types of incidents.”
Image courtesy of North East Lincolnshire Council
