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Council hopes to win hearts and minds of Pendle people to tackle littering and dog fouling
Published: Monday, 2nd March 2020
In its bid to tackle littering and dog fouling, Pendle Council is appealing to the people of Pendle to take personal responsibility for their actions.
It’s calling on the hearts and minds of residents to make Pendle a cleaner place to live.
Councillor Mohammed Iqbal, Leader of Pendle Council, said: “We all want Pendle to be a cleaner place to live but we can only achieve this if people get behind us and dispose of their litter sensibly.
“Our approach to tackling littering and dog fouling will be one of education and engagement with residents as well as taking enforcement action where necessary.
“The District Enforcement contract has been extended for another year and they’ll work with us to help create a litter-free culture.
“This includes taking the message out to places including schools, retailers, supermarkets and fast food outlets.
“The team will also appoint litter champions and support community litter picking events as well as increase their weekly presence in parks and other green spaces across Pendle.”
Over the past year the District Enforcers have freed up the Council’s in-house Environmental Crime Team to investigate fly tipping and take more environmental criminals to court.
As a result 181 people have been fined.
In their new contract, District Enforcement Officers will also be responsible for catching people who throw litter from cars and vans.
Local people can help by flagging up problem hotspots for littering, dog fouling and fly-tipping on our website
Please provide as many details as possible to help us catch the culprits.
David Walker, Pendle Council’s Environmental Services Manager, said: “People have complained that District Enforcers focus on cigarette butts.
“In fact this is by far the biggest litter problem we have and they caught a staggering 3,295 people throwing cigarette butts on the ground.
“They also catch people littering items which can easily be taken home and recycled, with over 100 people caught throwing plastic drinks bottle and cans on the ground.
“And 40 people were caught throwing food – which is health hazard as it attracts rats.”
Note to editors
District Enforcement started work in Pendle in February 2019 and at the Policy and Resources Committee on 13 February 2020, Pendle Council agreed to the 12 month extension.
The contract with District Enforcement will be reviewed in December 2020.
All Fixed Penalty Notice revenue is collected by District Enforcement to pay for their service costs and the remaining income is shared 50:50 between Pendle Council and District Enforcement.
After deducting District Enforcement’s running costs there is a surplus of which Pendle Council receives around £20,000 in a full year. So far we have received £22, 250 which is used to help us tackle other environmental crimes such as fly-tipping.
District Enforcers are not on commission and are not offered incentives for the number of people they catch littering.
The District Enforcers will patrol for 200 hours over seven days a week and take a firm but fair approach, wearing body cameras which can be used for evidence and for public peace of mind.
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