News / litter
More than 8,000 fines handed out by Bristol City Council’s ‘litter police’
Marvin Rees said the council’s control centre has face-recognition technology which “could probably track everybody in the city”, as he revealed he wanted to get “more aggressive” on littering.
The mayor said the security cameras were “phenomenally effective” as he pledged to crack down on what Bristol City Council calls “environmental crimes”.
But he alluded to potential legal and moral issues around taking such an approach in preventing littering.
is needed now More than ever
Marvin Rees has pledged to crack down on what he has dubbed ‘environmental grafitti’
The mayor has made it a core pledge of his time in office and civil enforcement officers, hired by the council from external company Kingdom, have been prolific since being introduced late last year.
More than 8,000 fines have been handed out by the council’s litter police since November.
The aim is to make scenes like this a thing of the past
Littering, spitting, graffiti, fly-tipping, fly-postering and dog fouling can all land you with a £100 fine in Bristol if you are caught by the so-called ‘litter police’ from Kingdom.
At a council meeting on Tuesday, the mayor revealed 8,000 people had been slapped with fines since the crackdown began in November.
“I was in the centre the other day and I heard someone behind my back say ‘don’t bother it’s not worth the fine’ when he was about to chuck his cigarette butt. The message is getting through,” he said.
“I’m more than happy to look at anything we can do to be more robust and effective at catching people. We walk a tightrope with this, our control centre has phenomenal technology – face recognition stuff – and it’s phenomenally effective, we could probably track everybody in the city.”
But he said he was not sure “if it’s a route we want to go down” and there could be legal and moral issues around it.
Fines cost £100, but if paid within 10 days that drops to £50 for most infringements and £60 for others.
Figures show that the number of fines issued each month has decreased gradually since November – which could be put down to a change in attitudes in Bristol.
In their first week alone, the civil enforcement officers issued £31,000-worth of fines – with smokers dropping cigarette butts the most common offence.
In April, six people were ordered to pay £671.84 each in fines and court costs after they failed to pay their original fines.
Jack Pitts is a local democracy reporter for Bristol.
Read more: Rubbish piles up in Bristol parks after bank holiday
Our top newsletters emailed directly to you
