Crawley Borough Council’s Community Wardens continue crackdown on littering and fly-tipping

In July and August, the Wardens issued 20 fixed penalty notices (FPNs) for littering. Each littering FPN is £80, or £50 if paid within 14 days.

A recent non-payment of an FPN resulted in prosecution for one resident. The man left a cigarette butt in Broad Walk in the town centre and walked away, but a Community Warden witnessed the littering and issued the FPN.

He was fined £220, ordered to pay a victim surcharge of £34 and costs of £60. A total of £314, more than six times the cost of the original FPN.

The wardens also received 21 requests from the council’s Neighbourhood Services Team to investigate fly-tipping that could possibly be linked to an address.

These investigations resulted in 10 warnings for fly-tipping being issued and three Community Protection Notices being issued.

In the same time period, the Community Wardens reunited five lost dogs with their owners.

Councillor Gurinder Jhans, Cabinet member for Environmental Services and Sustainability, said: “We are working hard to tackle fly-tipping and littering. Not only does it look unsightly, it costs the taxpayer money and has a detrimental effect on our environment.

“We’ve been clear that fly-tipping is completely unacceptable and we take the illegal disposal of rubbish seriously. We will continue taking a zero tolerance approach and issue FPNs for littering. Our team thoroughly investigates incidents of fly-tipping to find out who has dumped material and won’t hesitate to prosecute.”

To report fly-tipping visit my.crawley.gov.uk/service/Tell_us_about_a_problem. For more info, visit crawley.gov.uk/wardens.