South Wales Evening Post - 24 February 2007
Tough new rules to hit litter louts with massive £75 fines for dropping rubbish are on their way to Swansea.
City leaders have approved radical plans to give teams of wardens the power to punish people in the pocket for dirtying the city.
They will patrol Swansea streets and be able to hand out spot fines to culprits spitting gum, dropping cigarette butts or discarding other waste. It will coincide with the April 2 smoking ban expected to see a surge in butt ends being dropped in the street.
Dedicated hit squads will also be deployed into communities throughout the county to tackle litter blackspots.
The new initiatives are designed to help clean up the city as part of the council's Streetforce strategy.
It could have imposed fines up to £150, but leaders decided to set the figure at the lowest level under Assembly rules.The council will be able to hand out fines from April, but has said it will have a three- month amnesty in which warnings are given instead.
Council leader Chris Holley admitted something needed to be done to tackle the problem and said he hoped the fines would be enough.
He said: "There are still people who clutter our beautiful city by thoughtlessly dropping litter where they stand rather than put it in a bin or take it home.
"There are letters almost every week in the newspaper complaining about litter in our streets."
And feedback from our own Swansea Voices community consultation project, as well as other opinion polls, gives a clear message that more needs to be done."
At present the council is powerless to hand out spot fines for littering and has to bring a costly prosecution instead.
Dog owners who do not clean up after their pets can already be handed a fine.
As well as targeting litter louts, the council is planning to roll out a successful pilot scheme to clear up grot spots in the county.
Neat (neighbourhood environment action teams) squads will target rubbish hotspots that are missed in regular street cleaning. These could include unadopted lanes, plots of land and areas where fly-tipping is common.
The aim is to have three of the teams, made up of 18 workers, who could be deployed across the county. Communities and local councillors could nominate target areas and a priority list would be drawn up.
Councillor Holley said: "The council already does a huge amount of work with teams dedicated to the task of keeping a tidy city by cleaning the city centre, tackling fly-tipping, emptying dog fouling bins and dealing with graffiti.
"The existing Neat team has already done great work in different areas of the city including St Thomas, Gorseinon and the riverside near the city centre.
"Environment campaigners have welcomed the get-tough approach but admit the public has a role to play.
A spokesman for Keep Wales Tidy said: "People expect a clean city but to tackle this everyone needs to play their part.
"Without the support of the public, it could be money wasted."The sad fact is that there are some people who whatever you do they will not stop.
"Let's hope these litter wardens will be able to enforce these kind of fines - otherwise there is no point having them.
"Swansea Council are trying everything in their power," he added.
"At the end of the day, the responsibility lies with us really."
