Arun fines more than 1,000 people for littering

The announcement comes as the court list for January 19 at Worthing Magistrates showed 55 people being prosecuted for having ‘threw down, dropped or otherwise deposited litter’.

All cases were adjourned and each gave the reason as ‘for plea, unforeseen circumstances prevented the hearing of this case’.

A spokesman for Arun District Council said: “As at 31 December 2017, 317 FPNs [fixed penalty notices] remained outstanding, although a proportion of these will now have settled the fine.

“The average payment rate in the Arun district is approximately 76 per cent, which means 24 per cent will go to court as all unpaid fines are prosecuted.

“The cost of prosecuting is zero for this authority as it is a zero cost contract.”

The cost to the taxpayer is not known.

Offenders face a maximum penalty of a £1,000 on-the-spot fine under the scheme which is being run by enforcement company EH Commercial Services Ltd.