Three fined for cigarette litter
Three people have been fined for dropping cigarette ends in Ammanford town centre.
The council’s environmental enforcement offices issued the fixed penalty notices for £75 to a 37-year-old man, 55-year-old woman and 31-year-old man in Quay Street.
Failure to pay could result in prosecution in the magistrates court and a maximum fine of up to £2,500.
The council now hopes these fines will act as a warning to others that those caught throwing litter will be prosecuted.
It follows a campaign to raise awareness of smoking-related litter as research shows that discarded cigarette ends make up the largest proportion of litter in Carmarthenshire with 83 per cent of litter found on the county’s streets smoking-related.
Chair of the Environment Scrutiny Committee Cllr Jim Jones said: “There is no excuse for littering our streets.Many people do not think of cigarette ends as litter, but they are. They make an area look unsightly and they are difficult and very expensive to clean up as the ends fall into grates and cracks in the pavement which makes them almost impossible to remove by normal cleaning.
“Hopefully these fines will help to raise awareness of this type of litter. We do not want to fine people but we will not hesitate to do so if they continue to litter in this way.”
The council’s environmental enforcement offices issued the fixed penalty notices for £75 to a 37-year-old man, 55-year-old woman and 31-year-old man in Quay Street.
Failure to pay could result in prosecution in the magistrates court and a maximum fine of up to £2,500.
The council now hopes these fines will act as a warning to others that those caught throwing litter will be prosecuted.
It follows a campaign to raise awareness of smoking-related litter as research shows that discarded cigarette ends make up the largest proportion of litter in Carmarthenshire with 83 per cent of litter found on the county’s streets smoking-related.
Chair of the Environment Scrutiny Committee Cllr Jim Jones said: “There is no excuse for littering our streets.Many people do not think of cigarette ends as litter, but they are. They make an area look unsightly and they are difficult and very expensive to clean up as the ends fall into grates and cracks in the pavement which makes them almost impossible to remove by normal cleaning.
“Hopefully these fines will help to raise awareness of this type of litter. We do not want to fine people but we will not hesitate to do so if they continue to litter in this way.”
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