Officials at a UK local authority have demonstrated that there are no boundaries to what can be classed as ‘waste crime’. According to an article in recycling magazine MRW, Hilary Buckland of Luton has received a £75 littering fine from her local borough council for dumping a solitary crisp.
The incident occurred when a child in Mrs Buckland’s car threw the offending ‘Cheesy Wotsit’ crisp on to her lap as she was driving along Leagrave High Street. Instinctively, she picked it up and threw it out of the window. However, she was spotted by an eagle-eyed official and promptly received the fine in the post. While the crisp was wrongly identified as a cigarette butt, Mrs Buckland was told that it was the council’s policy to issue fines for littering and that it made no difference whether it had been a crisp or a cigarette butt.
Luton Borough Council’s enforcement chief Jon Maddox says: ‘The council has invested significantly in a cleaner Luton and my colleagues work hard to make a visible difference. I don’t intend to let a small minority of litter louts take us a step backwards and will take action against anyone I hear of dropping litter.’
The fine was upheld despite Mrs Buckland’s pleas, thus underlining local councils’ increasingly hard-line approach to tackling waste.
