Why on earth do people drop litter?
This is a photo from the Bournemouth Echo today. Rubbish – literally.
Makes my blood boil because it’s so unnecessary. But thankfully the Council (who certainly get a share of my wrath on a regular basis) have done something positive about this horrible problem.
They’ve brought in some “private enforcement officers” to look for people littering and they’ve fined 290 so far in just 3 months. Now multiple that across the country and you’ve got an enormous litter blight.
So these private guys have done quite well and issued 20 times more fines than happened this time last year.
The fine is £75 – the same as for dog fouling (don’t get me started on that).
The Council doesn’t make any money from fines but they don’t have to pay the enforcement company either. The company just keeps the fines. So by my reckoning they’ve made £21,750 in 3 months. There are 5 litter officers so that’s £4,350 each, which is £1,450 per enforcer per month. That’s not a whole lot, but they may be part-time and I suspect the income will pick up considerably in the summer when all the messy tourists alight on Bournemouth. Probably quite a nice little earner.
Let’s hope it proves a deterrent to those who can’t be bothered to drop their rubbish in the nearest bin.
The other thing that caught my eye today is that Bournemouth Magistrates Court is closing by the end of the year.
What?
Now I agree the building would be better demolished as it’s a monstrosity, but we certainly need to keep a court in Bournemouth. They’re also closing the one in Dorchester, so the only magistrates courts in the whole of Dorset will now be in Poole and Weymouth – not many for such a big county.
And don’t they say the prisons are overcrowded? Doesn’t that mean more cases are being heard? So doesn’t that mean we need more courts, not fewer?
Beats me how these beaurocrats think