litter wardens.

[funkymoped]

a work friend of mine has just been given a �70 fine for dropping a cigarette end out of her car window.

she admitted the offence and is going to pay the fine.

my question is this. "could i be fined for dropping a grape or cherry on the ground ?"

i may be 100% wrong, but i thought you could only be prosecuted for littering if the item was NOT bio degradable.
also how can these wardens make you give your true name and address ?? they are not police officers and therefore have no legal right to ask your name and address, do they ????

[RATTER15]

Nearly all paper is biodegradable, as is cigarettes, cherries, grapes even a walloping dog turd but its all littering, well not the dog turd bit!!!

I think if you drop anything on the ground you can be for littering!!!

[society]

I am sick of seeing litter on the streets. I'm sure your friend will not litter again.

[curlyperm]

well what are you supposed to do with the cigarette dimp if you dont want to mess up the car ashtray?

[splish]

Would your friend drop a ciggy in her house... no. Would you drop food in your house... no. Why should we treat the streets outside any differently? Outside is for everyone to live.
Dropping any sort of litter is messy, dangerous to children and animals and is also very lazy.
Sure, it was right to fine your friend and i agree it would be difficult to fine everyone but if they can fine as many people as they can they should. It gets the message across to others and hopefully people will groiw to respect their streets.

[annie0000]

Controversial response here but, this only goes to prove that smokers are naturally dirty people. They mess up the enviroment with their dirty buts and smoke and spend most of the time stinking of smoke. Like Ratter said, a cigarette but is the equivalant of a dog turd, do you think that it is acceptable to chuck those out of a car window?

However, back to your question about a grape or a cherry, i think that in the town it is the same - it is still litter that is not really going to biodegrade on the concrete and therefore a mess and a nusiance which encourages vermin. However, I don't think that dropping a cherry or a grape or even an apple core in the middle of the countryside is an issue in the way that dropping a paper bag or cigarette end is. It is not natural to that particular environment.

I do think though that keeping a dog turd in your car ashtray might be a bit smelly after a while.

[THECORBYLOON]

Section 87 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 says

�(1) If any person throws down, drops or otherwise deposits in, into or from any place to which this section applies, and leaves, any thing whatsoever in such circumstances as to cause, or contribute to, or tend to lead to, the defacement by litter of any place to which this section applies, he shall, subject to subsection (2) below, be guilty of an offence.�

The Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005 amended the Environmental Protection Act 1990 and added this to it

"(8A) If an authorised officer of a litter authority proposes to give a person a notice under this section, the officer may require the person to give him his name and address.
(8B) A person commits an offence if-
(a) he fails to give his name and address when required to do so under subsection (8A) above, or
(b) he gives a false or inaccurate name or address in response to a requirement under that subsection.
(8C) A person guilty of an offence under subsection (8B) above is liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 3 on the standard scale."

(A level 3 fine is �1000 by the way)

[society]

Love your responses Annie and Splish :-) Right on que
Thanks CorbyL

xx

[bird_81]

A fag butt is not the same as a dog turd, yes it is littering, but you don't catch diseases from a fag butt ( unless you are smoking it!!)

[Panic Button]

I don't think cigarette filters are biodegradable. They certainly hang around a long time.

I happily chuck my banana skins into hedgerows, with a chuckle at the thought of the confused rabbit who finds it.

[grumpii]

Disguarded food attracts rats.

[funkymoped]

great answer Corby, thank you...

the issue wasnt that she threw a fag end out of her window... i could have lied and said it was a grape or cherry... that was why i used them as an alternative example. she did the crime and will pay the fine, not my problem or concern..

so, did we establish that its ok to throw fruit or fruit skin away if youre in the country side, but not if you are in a built up area ???

i was just curious as to where the law became a workable law and where the law is open to interpritation.

if an apple falls from a tree on council owned land, and falls onto a footpath... thats ok.
if i were to walk past the same tree and drop an apple, ive commited a crime !!!!!

[funkymoped]

also, could a person be prosecuted for dropping leaves ????

billions of the little blighters drop from the trees of Britain each year, but from what im reading i could get a fine if i dropped one leaf that i may have picked up..
again thats why i thought the dropped item HAD to be NONE bio-degradable for a prosecution.
:-)

[knobbynonuts]

just kick the frufing bqankeers i the rowloks jasper

[rosmarinus]

The filter tip is not biodegradable even if the cigarette is. I still dig them up in my garden several years after moving in to a smoker's property.