South Ayrshire Council News

Teams of Community Safety Officers, working in partnership with Strathclyde Police and the Council’s Waste Management
View more photographs

 Community Support Officers from South Ayrshire Council have taken part in the successful third national Litter Day of Action campaign organised by Keep Scotland Beautiful, aimed at reducing litter being dropped on streets and in public places.

Teams of Community Safety Officers, working in partnership with Strathclyde Police and the Council's Waste Management department patrolled Ayr, Troon, Prestwick and Girvan in order to highlight the fact that littering is an offence and can lead to an on the spot fine of £50.

Councillor Peter Convery, Portfolio Holder for Sustainability and the Environment said: "Once again, our officers enjoyed excellent public support and six penalty notices were issued to people caught dropping litter on our streets.

"In addition, a number of school pupils were cautioned for littering and I'm confident this campaign has highlighted the need for people to put their litter in the bin, or take it home for disposal there."

Councillor Nan McFarlane, Chair of the South Ayrshire Community Safety Partnership said: "Our Community Support Officers were delighted with the reception they received from local residents, for whom litter is a significant issue.

"The approach we are taking is that littering is unacceptable in any form and will be met with a zero tolerance approach from our officers.

"Although the Keep Scotland Beautiful litter day of action is just one day, Community Support Officers are on regular patrol in South Ayrshire and will continue to issue penalty notices to those people who consider it acceptable to drop litter in our streets and in public places."

The Environmental Protection Act 1990 gives powers to local authorities to operate a fixed penalty scheme for littering.

A litterer is defined as anyone who throws drops or deposits anything that contributes to the defacement of an area which includes: cigarette ends, chewing gum, sweet or food packaging or any material that should be disposed of in a bin, or taken home for recycling.

Litter wardens have the authority to issue £50 fixed penalty fines 'on-the-spot' to litterers. If this fine is paid within 14 days, no further court action is taken against the litterer.

Councillor Convery concluded: "Not only is littering a public nuisance and an offence, it costs a great deal of public money to clean it up.

"This could easily be saved if people behaved with more consideration and I was pleased to hear from our Community Safety Officers that the public supports our zero tolerance approach to littering on the streets of South Ayrshire."