Town hall chiefs say their efforts to educate people have not worked and now they are getting tough.

The city's park rangers will now be able to hand out £75 on-the-spot fines to anyone caught in the act.

At least six different categories of Preston Council employee can now hand out the £75 penalties, as well as two neighbourhood teams, called NEATeams (Neighbourhood Environment Action Teams), employed to help tackle environmental issues.

NEATeams will deal with fly-tipping, litter clearance, street sweeping, graffiti, fly-posting and public litter bins.

Police Community Support Officers also have the powers.

Some rangers have already been given the powers to fine for litter, but council bosses are now hoping to roll it out to all park workers.

There is also the "potential" for the rangers to be given powers to fine for dog fouling in the future – one of the city council's top environmental priorities – if planned dog control orders are passed.

Council leader Ken Hudson said that education is not proving as successful as hoped.

He added: "In the budget this time, while we have kept council tax at a 2.5% rise, we have also put in £30,000 to effectively look at penalty notices for dog fouling.

"We have spoken to well over 1,000 people and we believe in that rather than prosecution."

But he added: "We think that might not be working as well as it might and therefore we need to make a bit greater use of our fixed penalty notices."

Other workers with the power to give out fines for littering now include waste enforcement officers, litter education officers, street cleansing supervisors, chargehands, labourers and parks officers.

Non-enforcement staff take on the powers voluntarily, a spokesman said.
Only 24 fines have been handed out for littering in the past 12 months, and there have been calls for more fly-tippers to be fined.


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