“LitterCams” that are designed to catch and fine drivers who litter are to be piloted in Maidstone, as local authorities look to clamp down on offending motorists who flout the law.
The technology will use photographic and video evidence used to verify the offense before the case is submitted to the Driving Vehicle and Licensing Agency (DVLA) to trace and fine the litterbug in question using their number plate details and issue a pentaly notice.
The fines will start at £90, rising to £120 if unpaid within 15 days. The current maximum on-the-spot fine for littering in England is £150 and it will be the first pilot scheme of its kind in the country as part of wider plans to make Britain's roads cleaner.
At present, the only way motorists can be fined for littering is if they are caught by a warden, but utilising the new technology, the council will be shown footage and photos of number plates to verify the incident and act accordingly.
Furthermore, an online “LitterCam Portal” will be set up for anyone wishing to view the footage to see why the penalty notice was issued or to appeal against it.
According to statistics released by Highways England, around 200,000 bags of litter are removed from England's roads every year. The bags contain everything from disused coffee cups and the remnants of takeaways, to nappies, cigarette butts and even biodegradable items such as banana skins and apple cores.
The Highways England research includes all bagged litter left on high streets and minor roads, as well as major roads, where slip roads are often filled with discarded waste and larger items, such as building materials or appliances, which have sometimes been placed there purposefully by fly-tippers or have slipped from poorly-secured cargo on lorries and in vans and have yet to be cleared away.
A recent report from the Government found an alarming 2% rise in fly-tipping incidents, with two-thirds of fly-tips involving household waste.
Allison Ogden-Newton OBE, Chief Executive of Keep Britain Tidy, told BBC Breakfast News: “The fact that more than a third of all fly-tips (34%) are small-van size shows that this environmental crime is being driven by ‘man with a van’ operators who are conning the public with what appears to be a cheap way of getting rid of their rubbish, but one that leads to illegal disposal and environmental devastation.”
Television presenter Jeremy Paxman, who is a patron of Clean Up Britain – a campaign to find effective solutions to Britain's epidemic of litter and fly-tipping -said people should be more thoughtful with regards to littering: “What goes through people's minds, I guess, is that they want to keep the inside of their vehicle clean and therefore throw the rubbish out without realising they're making it a problem for everybody,” he said.
Following the Great British September Clean, an initiative from Keep Britain Tidy to clear rubbish from the roads, Highways England's Freda Rashdi said: “The simple fact is that if litter wasn't dropped in the first place it wouldn't need to be picked up.
“Litter is not only unsightly and a risk to wildlife and the environment, but it also puts our workers at risk collecting it and diverts time and money that could be better spent improving the network.”
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Keyword: Beware litterbugs: offending drivers could be issued with £120 fines if caught littering by camera technology