‘It’s right to keep fining litter louts and fly tippers’: Wigan’s £4m bill to clean up the streets

Although steps taken to tackle the problem by educating the public are having a ‘visible impact’ a senior councillor says it’s right to continue to fine offenders.

Since the launch of the town’s ‘Keep It Clean’ campaign 12 months ago, more than 173 fixed penalty notices have been issued – including more than 70 for acts of littering from vehicles, like throwing away cigarette butts, Wigan’s place and environment scrutiny committee was told.

Portfolio holder for planning, environmental services and transport Coun Paul Prescott said: “It’s an environmental crime to drop litter and that’s how we should proceed.

“It’s not right for people to throw their litter on the ground and walk away. The issue needs education but also enforcement.

“There’s no excuse to litter, and there’s definitely no excuse for fly tipping. No-one wants to take someone to court for this, but if they don’t learn, that’s what we will do at the end of the day.”

A report to the committee hailed the recruitment of more than 2,000 volunteer litter pickers operating across the borough.

It said the Keep It Clean campaign “delivers strong messages to residents and visitors”.

“Our environment team has been focused on implementing a number of initiative to ensure littering an fly tipping is tackled head on to ensure the borough is cleaner, greener and safer,” the report said.

And it hailed the success of the extension of the town’s “bulky waste” offer, which has increased the number of available appokntments per week with introduction of a third collection team and boosted the number of items for collection from three to five.

A second free collection was put in place and the fee for a third collection was slashed from £55 to £25.

“The service has proved very popular and whenever possible we try to reuse or recycle items, rather than send them to landfill,” the report said.

Bulky waste appointments between April and September 2023 amounted to 7,279 – 33 per cent up on the same period of the previous year.

Coun Jeanette Prescott revealed that she was one of the volunteer litter pickers. “I filled 20 bags last weekend,” she said. “I’m passionate about it and I get very angry.

“But we’ve got to bear in mind the wind blows some rubbish out of bins.”

Meanwhile, more street bins have been installed, particularly in busy pedestrian areas. Some 360 new street bins have appeared and about 200 more that were already there, but worn out, have been put in position. A further 160 bins have been put in ‘proven litter hotspots’.

This takes the total of street bins in Wigan to more than 2,000.

Alwo new digital software is enabling live collection data to be provided to residents via an “in-cab” reporting system.

The reports also said ‘waste amnesties’ across all wards in the borough to help residents dispose of their rubbish was having an effect.

“The scheme has really helped those residents who don;t have the means to travel to one of our recycling centres,” the report said.

“During the amnesties we were able to speak to many of our residents about the importance of managing their waste, helping their neighbours and the services available to them.

“Communities came together to help each other and council staff to clear their areas and build new relationships.”

In particular, the waste amnesties have resulted in a 19 per cent reduction in reported fly tipping incidents from April to August 2023 – the period when the amnesties were active.

The report added: “Our communities have really got behind our Keep It Clean programme, with 200 litter pickers operating across the borough over the next 12 months.”