Fixed Penalty Notice (environmental crimes)

Fixed Penalty Notices are issued by legally authorised officers of the council and its partner, Local Authority Support.

There is no legal definition of litter which can be anything that is dropped, thrown or otherwise deposited and left in areas where the law applies.  This will include the type of material that you would normally consider as litter such as cigarette butts and cans but may also include urinating and spitting.

Under Section 88(8A) Environmental Protection Act 1990, if an authorised officer of a litter authority (the council) proposes to give a person a Fixed Penalty Notice under this section, the officer may require the person to give them their name and address. Failing to provide the information the officer requires constitutes an obstruction offence.  Along with the littering offence you will also be charged for the obstruction offence and will face a fine of up to £1000.

A Fixed Penalty Notice issued is for the sum of £75 for litter, £80 for dog fouling and failing to comply. However, if you do not pay this you could end up in Court and be faced with a criminal conviction and fine that could cost you up to £2,500.

No. There are no formal grounds of appeal against a Fixed Penalty Notice. If you agree that an offence has been committed by you and you pay the penalty in full no further action will be taken. This method of dealing with offences not only saves the time involved for everyone (including the offender) in prosecuting cases at court, but the cost associated with a Fixed Penalty Notice is likely to be substantially lower than any fine imposed by the courts. For example, the maximum penalty which can be imposed by the Courts for littering is £2,500 along with a criminal conviction against the person.

If you believe you have mitigating circumstances surrounding the issuing of the Fixed Penalty Notice please forward your representations to wolverhampton.council@lasupport.co.uk

In this case the matter will be dealt with through formal prosecution in the court. It will then be up to the Court, to determine whether or not an offence was committed and whether or not any penalty should be imposed. The financial penalty imposed by the courts can be significantly greater than that which is imposed through a Fixed Penalty Notice.

The Fixed Penalty Notice fee is £75 which needs to be paid within 14 days to discharge criminal liability. There is no discount for early payment.

We are not required to place signs in every street, road, highway or open park/space to tell people not to litter. Litter legislation has been in force for many years. Littering in many parts of the UK is at such levels that local authorities across the country are now using Fixed Penalty Notices to drive the message home to those who spoil our towns and cities by carelessly discarding their rubbish. 

It is not possible to place litterbins in every street, road and highway in the city. Of course every effort is made to place bins where they are most needed and where there are the most people, such as in town centres and major shopping areas. It is also a littering offence to deposit litter down a drain in the road. Where bins are not available then it is up to everyone to act responsibly and make arrangements to either take their litter home or carry it until a litterbin is available. 

Wrong, litter includes not only cigarette butts, chewing gum and urinating and spitting in a public space. In many ways these items are more of a nuisance and more expensive to clean up than other items of rubbish.

Smokers are responsible for ensuring that they completely extinguish their cigarettes before placing them in the bin. Cigarette waste is the same as any other waste and you can be issued with a Fixed Penalty Notice for not disposing of cigarette butts properly. Obviously, to avoid any risk of fire cigarette butts should be completely extinguished on the stubbing plates provided on many litter bins before the butt is thrown into the bin. There is also no reason why smokers cannot carry portable 'butt bins' with them or create their own by placing some soil or sand in a small tin.

Our anti-litter campaign has existed for many decades. Organisations like the Keep Britain Tidy Group also do an excellent job in helping us get the anti-littering message over. Of course, all the publicity in the world is of no use whatsoever if the message is being ignored. We take our enforcement duties seriously and back up what is a serious and important message with action. This is the aim of our enforcement patrols who target those who ignore the littering laws which the rest of us abide by.

The offence relates to the dropping, throwing or depositing of litter and leaving it.  So whether or not you subsequently volunteer to pick up your litter afterwards you have committed an offence and will be issued with a Fixed Penalty Notice. 

Littering is not only a serious blight on our environment but very costly to the city council as well. 

Should the same person commit the same offence more than once in any twelve month period, consideration will be given to prosecuting the individual rather than issuing a further Fixed Penalty Notice.

We are no longer accepting appointments from members of the public, for all issues relating to a Fixed Penalty Notice please call 0800 781 6229 or email wolverhampton.council@lasupport.co.uk 

In the first instance please contact 0800 781 6229 or email wolverhampton.council@lasupport.co.uk