Litter bins
This page provides information about litter and litter bins.
Litter is unsightly, unhealthy in some circumstances, potentially dangerous.
Litter can range in size from a single sweet wrapper or cigarette butt, to a bag full of domestic rubbish or multiple lorry loads of flytipped waste.
It is an offence to drop litter of any kind. The Environmental Protection Act of 1990 (EPA 1990) states that ”if a person drops, throws, deposits, or leaves anything that causes defacement in a public place”, they commit an offence of littering.
Authorised Officers of the Council, including Police Constables and Police Community Support Officers (PCSO's), can issue an on the spot fine of £50 if they catch you dropping litter. If we choose to bring an offender before the Court you can expect a fine of up to £2,500 if found guilty.
We urge the public to use litter bins or take litter home.
Used cigarettes
A significant litter problem is caused by smoking. People seem to forget that dropping your cigarette butt or ‘fag’ packet onto the footway creates litter.
Most of the litter bins provided in our Town Centres have cigarette stubbers. You can use the stubber to put your cigarette out and then throw the butt into the bin.
Nowadays the majority of businesses have no smoking policies.
This often results in employees smoking on the street, usually just outside the workplace entrance. Often this results in smoking related litter.
Litter bins fitted with stubbers can be sponsored by local companies. They allow businesses and their employees to demonstrate a responsible attitude towards our local environment, the place in which we all live and work.
Emptying bins
We will ensure that litter bins in our town centres are emptied daily.
It is our aim to empty bins in other locations before they become more than three quarters full. If you see an overflowing bin please let us know.
We do not provide on street bins for dog waste. Owners and dog walkers should bag waste and put it into the nearest normal litter bin.
Where we put bins
Our policy is to place litter bins wherever there is thought to be a reasonable need.
This includes areas such as the entrance to recreation grounds, outside schools, public halls and near bus stops.
Sometimes we receive a request to install a litter bin in a new location. When this happens, we ask our local Neighbourhood Services Officer (NSO) to inspect the area.
The NSO will make sure that the proposed location is suitable and that a bin is really needed.
Finally, you might like to know that last year we picked up 3,000 tonnes of litter from our streets. This cost you, the tax payer, in excess of £1,200,000.
Contact
For more information or to report a problem with a litter bin, please contact the council’s Help Line on 01737 276000.
Last updated : 02/07/2009
