Litter

litter bin

Litter

The word litter is given a wide interpretation in law - it can be as small as a sweet wrapper or cigarette butt, as large as a bag of rubbish, or can mean lots of items scattered about. Encams (keep Britian Tidy) defines Litter as "Waste in the wrong place caused by human agency", in other words it's only people that make litter.

The Environmental Protection Act states that anyone who drops, throws, deposits or leaves anything “so as to cause defacement in a public place” could be committing a littering offence.

From 1st December 2007 a Streetscene Customer Officer has been employed to develop strategies for reducing litter and to ensure resources are effectively prioritised

We undertake regular inspections to monitor the amount of litter as part of the Best Value Performance Indicator (BVPI) 199 statistic; these surveys are used to highlight areas of focus and report to central government on the standards achieved within our area. A link to the BVPI website is shown below.

www.leq-bvpi.com

Cigarette butts and chewing gum are now classified as litter, and it is an offence to drop litter anywhere - including private land, rivers, ponds and lakes.

Our Environmental Enforcement Officers have the power to issue on-the-spot fixed penalty notices for £80 to anyone seen dropping litter. We can also require fast food outlets, stalls and mobile food vans to clear litter from their land.

The street cleansing teams pick up litter and empty litter bins on a regular basis. In the town centres of Bradford on Avon, Melksham, Trowbridge, Warminster and Westbury, bins are checked and emptied daily, for other areas, this is done on a weekly basis.

If you notice a litter problem, or see a bin that is full, then please contact us:

See also:

Encams (Keep Britain Tidy campaign) - http://www.encams.org/home/index.asp

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs - http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/localenv/legislation/cnea/litter-refuse.pdf