Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council is using new government powers to raise the penalties for littering and fly-tipping. Offenders will be charged £500 for dropping litter and £1,000 for bigger dumps of rubbish.
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00:00 I imagine a lot of our viewers are thinking is what if I can't afford this?
00:03 £500 for dropping litter or £1,000 for fly-tipping. It's a lot of money.
00:07 Well don't drop litter or fly-tip in the first place. That's what I would say to residents.
00:12 There is no community that is improved by having greater amounts of litter or by fly-tipping
00:18 and it's quite right that the council does everything it can to enforce against it.
00:22 We know that actually this detracts from some of our beautiful towns and villages
00:26 and that's why we've looked for the fines at the maximum they possibly can be
00:31 to make a very clear message that neither littering nor fly-tipping
00:34 are tolerated in Tambridge and Morlane.
00:36 Do you think this will work as a deterrent or do you think that it will anger residents who
00:41 are thinking like I said that it is just too expensive? Even a previous conversation in
00:46 the politics show this evening if people accidentally drop litter and then they're
00:49 charged that money it's an awful lot.
00:51 Yes but we need to send a very clear message and we have said that if it's your first offence
00:56 then that will be at £250 for littering but if you are a repeat offender then it's quite
01:00 right that you pay the maximum fine available.
01:04 We also know since we've changed our enforcement ways a couple of years ago that we're making
01:10 great strides to demonstrate that it's not acceptable to litter or fly-tip in Tambridge
01:15 and Morlane with the amount of fines that have been issued over £2,000 for littering
01:19 and all of our community litter pickers who do so on a voluntary basis across all the
01:24 different communities in Tambridge and Morlane often come back with bags of rubbish from
01:28 just such a small area and that shows just the amount that we've got in the community
01:33 and why we've all got to work together to clamp down on it.
01:36 And you mentioned that £250 number now a fine for speeding is about £100 and people
01:41 would argue speeding is a lot more dangerous for our communities than litter.
01:45 But of course we've got to look after our environment haven't we? We know that the
01:48 environment is that precious commodity that is under threat at the moment because of climate
01:54 change and we've got to make sure that we're doing the right thing.
01:57 And ultimately I can't control the speed and fines but I can help control the amount
02:02 of litter and fly-tipping that we have in our community and how that's enforced.
02:06 So it's quite right that we look at what we can do and we set fines where they should be.
02:10 And something else you can control is how aware your residents are that this is the
02:14 process. How aware do you think people are that you've upped these fines and that it
02:19 is actually going to act as that deterrent? How do you get the message out?
02:22 So of course we just agreed these on Tuesday so we've got a long way to go and obviously
02:26 they'll come into force later in the year. We'll make sure that our signage is updated,
02:30 we'll make it very clear on our website, we'll make it clear through social media
02:34 as well. We'll continue to communicate with all the parish councils in the area,
02:38 with all the community groups as well. Because I think this is something that as you rightly
02:42 say Abby you need to get the message out there. Because the more people that know that you're
02:46 taking a really tough stance against littering and fly-tipping the fewer people will be tempted
02:52 to do it. And that's one of the reasons I'm sat on your sofa and I'm going around talking to
02:56 lots of people to make sure that they're aware about our stance on this.
03:00 Very very quickly Matt, what will you do with the money that you get from these fines?
03:03 What will that go into?
03:04 Well we need to reinvest that into community initiatives. We need to
03:07 do that in lots of different ways to help support the community.