The Litter Capital of Britain
It seems that Newham has been found out as the place which issues the most litter fines in the country. A survey conducted on behalf of estate agents, Sell House Fast, and reported in Time Out crowned Newham as the Litter Capital of Britain.
Residents will be familiar with the state of the borough, indeed opposition leader, Cllr Mehmood Mirza has made the state of the streets a major part of his campaign.
The results of the survey may not, however, be as revealing as they seem. We reported on the introduction of private company Kingdom Local Authority support. We noted the mayor’s assertion when welcoming the appointment of Kingdom. “Cigarette butts, chewing gum and spitting will all be targeted in the crackdown.”
Cigarettes, spitting and chewing gum are all unwelcome, but so are dumped fridges, mattresses and broken furniture. The latter appear to be much lower on the council’s list of priorities. It would also be helpful if the bins were emptied once in a while.
We offered the suggestion at the time that the business model employed by Kingdom was more about making money and less about keeping the borough clean.
Kingdom are not paid by the council. Their model is to issue fines and pay their costs as a proportion of fines collected. It is a model to incentivise easy wins in high traffic areas and which discourages forays into the residential neighbourhoods that are plagued by the refuse of take-away containers, sweet wrappings, low hanging bags of dog faeces and accumulated detritus.
These are the people that fined a pensioner for feeding the birds in the park.
This led us to opine that the primary purpose of engaging Kingdom was to raise money for the cash-strapped mayor, not to improve the cleanliness of the streets. As we see nothing to suggest that even the main shopping thoroughfares and the areas around the stations is improving, we are still of the same opinion.
For stubbing out your cigarette butt you face a £150 fine. For spitting, you face a £150 fine; it’s an unpleasant habit, (which does not spread TB), but unless it is expectorant mixed with betel nut juice, it leaves no trace. Chewing gum does mark the streets. Unfortunately, there is no evidence to suggest that the money being raked in is being used to clean the pockmarked streets of chewing gum.
This will bring in between £2.5m and £7.5m each year, (early payment reduces the liability to £50).
On the bigger issue, we recall that Mayor Fiaz won an award from Keep Britain Tidy, (you may begin to wonder about the value of any of these awards!). This is what she said, “A Message from the Mayor. Last week we were recognised with an award for our Better Streets programme delivered in partnership with Keep Britain Tidy to tackle fly-tipping.”
Neither the Better Streets Programme, nor the award seem to have improved street cleanliness.
It is rather typical of the administration, announce a policy with a big headline, promise the world and deliver nothing.
Perhaps the aspirant mayoral candidates might like to give some consideration to this matter and take some policy proposals into the May election.