Reporting litter dropped from vehicles

[Toadflax]

There is a web site where you can report incidents of litter dropped from vehicles. You may or may not think this is a good idea, you may or may not think it will have any effect. If you answer no, then just ignore this posting, but if you do want to report such incidents, go to www.keepbritaintidy.org where there is a link to allow you to make a report. From the statement on their site:

By using this site to report littering – whether from a car, bus, lorry, minibus, motorcycle or van – you will join our petition and be amongst an ever growing number of people throughout England wanting to put an end to the car litter problem.

Every time you see someone littering, help us do something about it by inputting the incident to our site. By providing us with the detail of the littering offence you will help us gather evidence to raise the importance of this issue throughout England. We need as many of your reports as possible to show at the highest level just how seriously so many of you take the issue.

Geoff

 

[Tadpole]

I’m sorry but this is not a good thing, it’s just a new way of ruining the life of some random person whom you have a grudge against. Report them for dropping litter, you have no proof and they have no defence.

 

[Chainsaw]

Hmm no scotland, wales or NI regions. Great idea but more like Keep England Tidy. Bit disappointing, I suppose we could always select 'unknown'

Cheers,

Alan

PS Tadpole take a look at the website there's no registration details to be entered and if there's no proof there can be no 'case' to be answered

 

[EdS]

report it to the local council:

Date
Time
Location inc which way of trvelling
reg number
car description
driver description
litter description
what was dropped - and was it dropped or thrown

My department deal wit this so if you want some more advise pm me.

Environmental Protection Act 1990 section 87 and FPN under s88.

 

[Toadflax]

report it to the local council:

That's interesting. A few years ago my car was hit by a cigarette box that was dumped out of the driver's window of the car in front. I'd recently read a report about a council solicitor successfully prosecuting someone who he'd seen dropping litter so I rang the council, they told me they couldn't do anything and to ring the police, which I did, but they didn't seem particularly interested.

I’m sorry but this is not a good thing, it’s just a new way of ruining the life of some random person whom you have a grudge against. Report them for dropping litter, you have no proof and they have no defence.

I assume that when you use the word "you" that you mean "some people" and not me. I would not go to the trouble of making something up in order to satisfy a grudge.


Geoff

 

[Tadpole]

I assume that when you use the word "you" that you mean "some people" and not me. I would not go to the trouble of making something up in order to satisfy a grudge.


Geoff

Yes I mean a generic 'you' and not you 'specifically' .

 

[gregorach]

I’m sorry but this is not a good thing, it’s just a new way of ruining the life of some random person whom you have a grudge against. Report them for dropping litter, you have no proof and they have no defence.

Who has grudges against random people? And is reporting someone for dropping litter really "ruining [their] life"? I think that might be just a slight exaggeration...

I think perhaps what you meant to say was "mildly inconveniencing some horribly inconsiderate and antisocial git."

Yes, when you report people for breaking the law, they don't tend to be pleased about it. Tough.

 

[Ogri the trog]

Not entirely sure that this is the right way of tackling the problem but its a start.

A few years ago when visiting family in Canada, driving along with a paper cup of coffee in hand near an open window - car jolted and cup fell out - my brother pulled over, stopped and walked back to retrieve the "litter" - not something you'd see in Britain. It'll take a redical change of collective consiousness to treat litter as unnacceptable here.

ATB

Ogri the trog

 

[Tadpole]

Who has grudges against random people? And is reporting someone for dropping litter really "ruining [their] life"? I think that might be just a slight exaggeration...

I think perhaps what you meant to say was "mildly inconveniencing some horribly inconsiderate and antisocial git."

Yes, when you report people for breaking the law, they don't tend to be pleased about it. Tough.

A friend of my wife, was arrested because some person whom she’d flashed her headlights at, reported her for driving away from the scene of an accident. The accident was real; a child was hit by a car that failed to stop, the police pursued the case right up to the doors of the court room before the said random person confessed he just wanted her taught a lesson. In the three months between being arrested and a court appearance, my wife’s friend lost her job as a travel agent, had her car insurance double, was harangued in the street where she lived, and had some of her so called friend stop talking to her. A few years later, when she reported her credit card being cloned, she was detained and questioned about that, alongside her other “criminal activities”.
So yes random people hold/bare grudges for reasons only known to themselves.

I know that several people that have claimed to have reported 'bad driving' just for a laugh, I don’t know the end result, but I’m sure it’s not a laugh for the person driving the trucks that were reported.

This will be abused. There are no checks balances in place to check the truth before the damage is done. I’m sure you’d not be happy were you to be fined by a letter though the post, if some random person chose to report you for something you didn’t do.
Can you prove you didn’t throw a “big mac” wrapper out of the window of your car/truck, and I mean prove, not just deny. [if you have no car can you prove you didn’t drop a newspaper jumpmail pamphlet?]

 

[gregorach]

You might want to re-read quote in the OP from the linked page a little more closely - it's not reporting them to the police, and there is no suggestion of legal sanction. They're just trying to gauge the scale of the problem. It's an awareness campaign, not a pogrom.

 

[Tadpole]

You might want to re-read quote in the OP from the linked page a little more closely - it's not reporting them to the police, and there is no suggestion of legal sanction. They're just trying to gauge the scale of the problem. It's an awareness campaign, not a pogrom.

I read the quote and the linked site. Given the level of details requested on that site, I'm sure anything useful will be passed on to the relevant people, despite their protestations. Not withstanding that, under Environmental Protection Act 1990 section 87 any “authorised person” may give you a fixed penalty notice. So the police may not be called, but you could still be fined £75 for littering or £2500 for non-payment (along with a criminal record).

 

[Tony]

It does bug me when i see it, i've stopped before and got out or got the kids out to pick up stuff that flown out the window (although we do chuck apples cores etc into the bushes in our rural area....

I think that being a good example and making our kids know what's right and wrong will have the most impact, although many don't bother teaching them.

One thing that I do like about the US/Canada is that they seem to have more sense of pride in their country, I lived in Canada for a number of years and saw it a lot and in the US organisations took responsibility for keeping stretches of road clean, very impressive. Although I appreciate not always the case it's something to respect.
We've a long way to go to regain what I think has been lost when it comes to stuff like this in the UK.

 

[gregorach]

So what exactly are you objecting to here, Tadpole - this particular awareness campaign, the 1990 EPA, the general concept of fixed penalty notices, or the general concept of actually enforcing anti-littering laws?

There are already a multitude of ways someone with a grudge can mess up your life with an anonymous phone call, and virtually all of them are far worse than an accusation of littering. This doesn't change that at all.

 

[Chainsaw]

Just looked at the act on here section 87 is on page 11. and paraphrasing a bit;

Where a person is given a notice under this section in respect of an offence&#8212; <snip>
(b) he shall not be convicted of that offence if he pays the fixed penalty before the expiration of that period.

and

The fixed penalty payable to a litter authority in pursuance of a notice under this section shall, subject to subsection (7) below, be &#163;10

and an &#8220;authorised officer&#8221; means an officer of, or in the case of any Park board or National Park Committee, an officer acting on behalf of, a litter authority who is authorised in writing by the authority for the purpose of issuing notices under this section.

So basically park wardens and some litter authority bods, not general county or regional council employees just those specifically concerned with litter.

cheers,

Alan

 

[Tadpole]

So what exactly are you objecting to here, Tadpole - this particular awareness campaign, the 1990 EPA, the general concept of fixed penalty notices, or the general concept of actually enforcing anti-littering laws?

There are already a multitude of ways someone with a grudge can mess up your life with an anonymous phone call, and virtually all of them are far worse than an accusation of littering. This doesn't change that at all.

I’m against the whole autonomous/anonymous witch hunt fuelled by a well meaning but poorly thought-out short-lived vote catching ad campaigns.
What is wrong with using the people in place to do what is basically their job, cleaning up litter and fly tipped junk, and spending the money where it is needed, and that is education people about their responsibility. Too many people are willing to abdicate their responsibility to ‘others’ be it at the end of the phone or via an email/web form. The same people are unwilling to do their bit and challenge the problem head on, in schools, in town centres, and in their own local area.

 

[BorderReiver]

A lot of folks have video capability now and a quick clip of the offence would help the authorities.

I can remember driving through one of our picturesque local villages behind an old couple; the old lady passenger rolled down her window and proceeded to chuck handfuls of sweet wrappers out into the street. Unfortunately no camera.

Apart from reporting that sort of idiocy there's not much you can do about it.

 

[gregorach]

So you don't think people should be able to report offences to the relevant authorities then? Do you also think the police shouldn't answer the phone?

What do you mean by "vote-catching"? I wasn't aware that Keep Britain Tidy was a political party, or indeed seeking votes in any way.

 

[Tadpole]

So you don't think people should be able to report offences to the relevant authorities then? Do you also think the police shouldn't answer the phone?

What do you mean by "vote-catching"? I wasn't aware that Keep Britain Tidy was a political party, or indeed seeking votes in any way.

Leaving aside a poor attempt at Reductio ad absurdum, Clearly that is not what I think, nor is it what I have written. People should report transgression to the relevant authorities, with littering you report to you local environmental authority, or the local council, if you wish to report a crime ring the police, there is a non emergency number listed in nearly all yellow pages.
But as you pointed out it’s best to report it to the relevant people.

Keep Britain Tidy is part of a grant-aided government controlled body run under/for Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

 

[British Red]

Going to watch this one play out.

I love the idea of a petition against littering from cars. I guess the idea of the petition is to counteract the large pro-littering lobby?

 

[Ruvio]

any ideas who i'd contact for trees growing through a powerline...its pretty dangerous but noone seems to want to hear it...