Money, Money, Money!

[FishingMagic]

This is a dedicated thread for discussing article: Money, Money, Money!

 

[theartist]

Seems a good idea but a £500.00 fine for dropping a bottle left me thinking the decimal point was put in the wrong spot somewhere, it would also really be harsh on someone who lost something out of their pockets unwittingly to be literally out of pocket to that amount. Or should that be litterally.

 

[Cliff Hatton]

Right first time, The Artist - 'literally'! Nope! The decimal point was in the right place! The whole point behind my idea is to be utterly uncompromising and, in any case, I think £500.00 quite lenient given the nature of the crime. Doubtless I did a bit of thoughtless littering as a little kid but certainly, since the age of around nine or ten I haven't dropped so much as a sweet-wrapper and it hasn't been at all difficult!

---------- Post added at 16:45 ---------- Previous post was at 15:14 ----------

Doh! I see the pun now, The Artist! Sorry!

 

[thecrow]

10k fine or 5 years in the nick, prisons are overflowing now where would the money come from to pay for all these new prisoners? don't get me wrong I think littering is disgraceful but it isn't going to happen is it?

 

[Titus]

They said the smoking ban would never work but that seems to be doing ok. So long as the public get behind a law it almost becomes self policing, a few high profile fines of prominent people and the message would soon get out. If it also became a reason to stop and search it would spread the message even quicker.
But why stop at littering, why not extend it out to all forms of inconsiderate antisocial behaviour?
Spitting, foul language, public drunkenness, lewd and lascivious behaviour and anything else we can think of, my nan used to think eating in the street was an immoral act and when the bloke in the chip shop asked if she wanted her chips wrapped or open she just glared at him till he wrapped them.

 

[thecrow]

Why not go back to transportation as a punishment, where to though I have no idea

 

[robertroach]

I would be prepared to go littering if it meant transportation to Australia!

 

[geoffmaynard]

Draconian sentences are tried elsewhere in the world, sometimes with success (Singapore, spitting and chewing-gum offences carry prison time; you don't see people gobbing or find chewing gum stuck to your shoe) and other places less so; (Florida - instant 10 years in prison for discharging a weapon at a crime scene. Still has huge gun crime though and the law has little or no impact).
I think education is the key. Keep Britain Tidy was the govt public broadcast message we were inundated with int the early 60s, and it worked. We all got brainwashed to be good tidy citizens. In Australia they had a Keep Australia Beautiful campaign with similar results. So, education, education, education for me.

 

[Judas Priest]

Point being.

1. You can pass as many laws as you want but who exactly is going to police them as law enforcement officers these days spend as much time being social workers as they do catching criminals.

2. We can't or won't build enough prisons to encarcerate criminals we have now without trying to get another few million through the system, that's why a prison term is never as it seems with early release and out on license being the norm these days.

3. For those on the long term dole and disability benefit (alcohol and drug related and the work shy feckless) who pays their fine. The taxable working population that's who.

 

[Michael Loveridge 2]

I have unfortunately today driven from Canvey Island to the Lakeside shopping centre in Essex, carrier bags decorate the hedge rows , every roundabout every point ie traffic lights and junctions where motorists stop there are heaps of litter !
It embarrasses me to walk our streets and drive on our roads , I never stop at laybys in fear of catching some awlful disease , bottles of urine half eaten fast food , overflowing litter bins if indeed there are any .
What can we do ?
Cliff iam with you , lets give heavy fines a go , parents need to parent !
Let the Police inforce the litter laws like they do with the speeding drivers , use CCTV , its got to stop !!

 

[theartist]

Living as I do in an area where a bag of litter appears in the street daily, and if i'm unlucky it's the turn of my drive I abhor litter in all forms and more so when it graces our countryside.

Poor upbringing is the problem I say as I was always bought up to put any wrappers etc in my pocket and take home. Seems there's lots of numbnuts out there and they seem to be breeding well. Despite this on the spot fines of a reasonable amount or an education course a'la speeding will work a lot better than any draconian punishment.

 

[Titus]

Lay-byes these days are little more than open sewers, the authorities know that lorry drivers use them as overnight stops and public toilets so why they don't just accept the fact and put portaloos in them is beyond me, the public health risk alone should be enough of an incentive.

 

[no-one in particular]

Draconian sentences are tried elsewhere in the world, sometimes with success (Singapore, spitting and chewing-gum offences carry prison time; you don't see people gobbing or find chewing gum stuck to your shoe) and other places less so; (Florida - instant 10 years in prison for discharging a weapon at a crime scene. Still has huge gun crime though and the law has little or no impact).
I think education is the key. Keep Britain Tidy was the govt public broadcast message we were inundated with int the early 60s, and it worked. We all got brainwashed to be good tidy citizens. In Australia they had a Keep Australia Beautiful campaign with similar results. So, education, education, education for me.

I agree Geoff-There was a time when if you were caught pick-pocking more than three times you were dragged of to Tyburn, publicly hanged and had your entrails cut out and burned in front of you. You don't get more draconian than that!!-Pick pocketing was rife at these events; did not put them off at all. Draconian measures will not stop people dropping litter.
I would have a blitz, zero policy every now and again and make those caught spend a day or three cleaning up all the laybys, river walkways, public places etc of litter.
A fair punishment, would educate the culprits and everyone else seeing this and useful at the same time..

The problem with draconian is last weeks draconian wasn't draconian enough so next week, lets make it more draconian-inf. And then you end up living in North Korea.

 

[sagalout]

The average fine for littering in Torbay is £80.00 BUT the litter wardens only approach those people that don't frighten them, thus a pensioner dropping a fag butt is fined but a teenage drunk is allowed to drop the wrappings from their takeaway.

At 5 o'clock on a Sunday morning the harbour area of Torquay is knee deep in takeaway wrappers.

 

[Cliff Hatton]

Sagalout: that's why we need proper police officers to do the job. I tell ya...the treasury would rake in a fortune!