Words: Richard Beecham, local democracy reporter
Leeds City Council issued more than £60,000 in on-the-spot littering fines in just three months, new data has revealed.
Despite the pandemic’s affects on footfall throughout the city, exactly 698 littering fines were issued on behalf of the council by environmental enforcement agency 3GS during April, May and June this year.
Each fine was worth either £80 or £100, and added up to a total of £63,240 in fines.
The statistics, which were published by the council via the Datamill North website, show only 449 of these fines have yet been paid, meaning only £38,520 has been collected by the authority.
Those fines which are yet to be paid are either listed as “prosecution under way” or “prosecution pending”.
The figures represent a gigantic increase in the number of fixed penalty notices issued for littering in the first three months of 2021, which amounted to just 13, at a total value of £1,160. The total number of litter fines issued on behalf of the council during the whole of 2020 was 2,269, at a total value of £203,320.
Some of the locations in which people are most regularly fined for littering include Briggate, Lands Lane, The Headrow, Merrion Street and Calverley Street.
Leeds City Council charges a fixed penalty notice of £100 for those caught littering, or £80 if you pay within 10 days.
3GS describes itself on its website as “a specialist service provider, focussed on the provision of environmental enforcement, aligning our service delivery standards to that of UK Policing.”
