Litterbugs fined during refuse strike

BINS were overflowing and rubbish piled up in the streets during a three month bin strike in Leeds but 72 people were fined for dropping litter in the street during the walkout.

The Yorkshire Post can reveal that despite many households missing countless collections while the industrial dispute rolled on, Leeds City Council continued its tough stance on litter louts.

Last night the council’s decision to carry on issuing notices during the strike was branded “ridiculous” but the local authority defended its actions saying there was no excuses for littering.

The council, in response to a Freedom of Information request from the Yorkshire Post, said in an eleven-week period from September 7, last year, when the strike began, it had fined 72 people.

A spokesman for the TaxPayers’ Alliance said: “In normal circumstances there’s nothing wrong with punishing littering but it’s ridiculous to fine people when the bins are overflowing thanks to a strike. The council could have made a big contribution to keeping the streets clean by getting the strike sorted out quicker.”

People who drop litter, including cigarette ends and chewing gum, can be hit with a 75 fixed penalty.

This can be reduced to 50 for prompt payment but failure to pay will result in prosecution which could lead to a fine of 2,500.

The dispute was originally provoked by a city-wide exercise to try to equalise men and women’s pay across different types of jobs, which led to many binmen facing substantial pay shortfalls

But last night Leeds City Council defended its decision to continue its fining system.

A council spokesman said: “Littering, regardless of the situation, is an issue we take very seriously and there are simply no excuses for it.

“People who chose to drop litter on the streets, rather than dispose of it correctly during the strike action, were issued with fines exactly the same as they would have been at any other time of the year.”

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