St Helier gets tough on litter
Monday 12th July 2010, 3:00PM BST.
The Constable of St Helier is losing patience with litter louts
ST HELIER is taking a tough new stance on people seen dropping takeaway food, cigarette butts and other litter in town.
The Constable, Simon Crowcroft, is so fed up that his staff are having to clean up at ratepayers’ expense, that steps are being taken to prevent it from continuing and offenders have been warned that fines will be issued.
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Good and I hope it applies to chewing gum too! How about the takeaways being responsible for sweeping up designated areas surrounding their premises and the pubs, clubs and restaurants sending a staff member outside regularly to sweep up the cigarette buts that their customers are too lazy to put in the containers they provide.
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What a scandal. The Parish have removed most of the bins from the town area. More bins less litter!
Even this seems to be too simple for our overpaid politicians.
What have they done instead made it harder for anyone to dispose of their before its dropped rather than being forced to carry it home.
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Can we make citizen arrests, I have counted 5 little blighters this morning disposing their crisp packets and empty cans on the way to the harbour. Might be too late as they’ve returned to the UK.
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The parish sould double or treble the parish rates for takeaway outlets to help pay for cleaning their litter.
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Good, and about time. It certainly raises my ire when I see rubbish strewn all over town due to lazy people that simply cannot be bothered to use the bins.
I would hope that this directive will also apply to the imbeciles who place their rubbish in the eurobins but then leave the lids wide open – a marvellous feast for our resident seagull population who will then gleefully rip open the bags, spreading mess all over the place in the process.
It really is down to sheer arrogance, and I do hope we start fining these people, maybe then they’ll get the message that the rest of the populace is not simply there to clean up after them.
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i would like to see more ashtrays in the street.
the lack of bins in town may have something to do with bomb threats.
not many in paris, but many sweepers.
and find the london underground quite clean these days.
hong kong and malaysia , singapore , quite hard on litter droppers.
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I agree RB!
Did any of you try to find a bin in town? More bins less litter!
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spin,spin & more spin nearly as much as the “dogends” everywhere,they havn’t got the bottle to sort it.
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There is nobody out on the street enforcing the anti litter law and so the problem will just continue.
The Island authorites need to introduce new legislation to deter this sort of behaviour.
In the U.K. they have litter clearance notices and litter abatement notices. These can be served on proprietors of fast food outlets. This requires them to clear up the litter from public areas near their premises or land on which the premises are located. If the areas aren’t cleared the authorities can either take offenders to court, or issue a fixed penalty notice.
Also in the U.K. local authorities have officers who issue fixed penalty notices for £75 to offenders. If paid, offenders can discharge their liability to prosecution. If the fixed penalty isn’t paid the offenders are summonsed to court and the fine can be up to £2,500.
Simon Crowcroft could get his Honorary Police officers to deal with this type of offence and the money from the fixed penalties could help administer the system.
I suggest Mr. Crowcroft looks at Section 87 and 88 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990, and Sections 92, 93 and 94 of this Act.
The presence of litter and refuse on the Island’s streets obviously damages the environment, but it also makes the place look less attractive for tourists. Lets hope the Connetable can sort out this problem.
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after working in commercial st for 14 weeks every day the bank staff in that street taking fag breaks and throwing the butts into the road or down the draind etc even though they have cigarrete ash trays on the walls outside their offices ….
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An extra, proportional tax, based on sales should be paid by the proprietors with late night licenses to sell food.
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Jerseyjag
Posted July 12, 2010 at 4:29 pm
The parish sould double or treble the parish rates for takeaway outlets to help pay for cleaning their litter.
Yes Make them pay, they are a proffit making conncern after all
Read more: http://www.thisisjersey.com/2010/07/12/st-helier-gets-tough-on-litter/#ixzz0tVsET9S9
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RB 2 – What a scandal. The Parish have removed most of the bins from the town area. More bins less litter!
Completely agree, when I first came to Jersey over 20 years ago I was struck by how clean it was and by the number of litter bins on street corners. I automatically kept my litter as I knew I would soon pass a bin to dispose of it.
I know that they were withdrawn in London because of bomb threats but in Jersey?
Bring back the bins, enforce the litter law and fine people, have a name and shame section in the Post. Worse of all are the idiots who leave litter on the beach, I walk my dog every day on the beach and am constantly picking up cans and bottles and broken glass – broken glass on the beach, it’s only a matter of time before some poor child/adult/dog cuts themselves.
Provide more bins and fine those that don’t use them, there’s enough CCTV to find the buggers.
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RB (2) What a scandal. The Parish have removed most of the bins from the town area. More bins less litter!
Yes RB, a great opportunity for Simon Crowcroft to do something about the litter. Oh sorry, but that would diminish the flow press releases.
Simon must be saving the litter bins for the Town Park.
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It’s not just town, just drive up the main roads to St Lawrence or St John – or anywhere and see the tons of plastic, beer and drink cans and takeaway containers strewn everywhere.
I have been on the authorities but they could not care less.
Funny there is always enough for another welfare hand out, or pay rise for States members but never any money to pick up the rubbish.
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More Bins please!!!!!
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Why not add the price of clearing up cigarette ends as a separate tax on cigarettes? Shouldn’t be too difficult to administer.
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#17 ‘Why not add the price of clearing up cigarette ends as a separate tax on cigarettes? Shouldn’t be too difficult to administer.’
You’re right there Ash. Just take the money in tax and then do nothing except throw it at a company who will charge more and more to do less and less clearing up.
Shouldn’t be too difficult to administer!
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10 ‘after working in commercial st for 14 weeks every day the bank staff in that street taking fag breaks and throwing the butts into the road or down the draind etc even though they have cigarrete ash trays on the walls outside their offices ….’
Smokers don’t respect their own bodies. You can hardly expect them to respect their surroundings or the comfort of others.
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The States are always banging on about obesity – help prevent this by putting 25% GST on all takeaway food, including coffee and all drink in plastic bottles. Takeawy food and fizzy drinks contain huge amounts of calories.
Takeaway containers, including coffe cups and plastic drink bottles are one of the most common type of rubbish thrown in the roads and hedges.
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#10 They’ve made Patriotic Street an ash tray as well. And they’ll smoke right under someone’s flat window rather than cross the road to the car park, disgusting morons the lot of them.
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Smokers cause most of the problems but then what about all the seagulls taking litter out the bins? Isn’t it about time these nasty creatures were culled? They dont serve any purpose.
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Get tough on seagulls
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THANK GOD, its about time the SOJP/Honorary’s did something about this disgraceful antisocial behaviour!!! i think the SOJP/Honorary’s should immediately cease any investigations into any other anti social behaviour (assaults, drunkeness etc) and begin a 24hr, 7 day a week concerted effort to sort this out!!! And as for cigarrette smokers…. well let me suggest this anyone seen smoking in st helier… No, in fact the whole island, should simply be shot on sight… and their relatives made to work in labour camps until they admit that their deceased kin was no better than Pol Pot!
That’ll learn em!
Still gotta laugh huh!
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#22 Dave, that’s probably more a problem with their not being enough bins. It’s only when the bins get full that the seagulls can get stuff out of them, if there were more bins they would be less full. Not that I’m defending the blasted seagulls but I doubt there’s much we can do about them.
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Can someone please tell me why bins are being removed throughout the island?
Lots of litter can be a good indicator as to what the residents think of their area. If people had more pride about life in Jersey, they might be more inclined to put their litter in a bin
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I believe that there is barely any rubbish. STOP COMPLAINING ABOUT EVERYTHING, the stress is bad for you.
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What makes me laugh is all these laws that are being passed, the typical solution to problems, Make it against the law! Why, it costs more to police and punish than it would the road sweepers coming back in force on the streets of St Helier. To my knowlege the problem started when they disbanded the States street cleaners.
What about a law if anyone acts like a idiot in the states or cocks up on pricing a job and overspends they get put inside for a year! we would soon see the states taking a proper interest in the island, rather from a developers point of view.
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#24 ‘THANK GOD, its about time the SOJP/Honorary’s did something about this disgraceful antisocial behaviour!!!’
As I said, recently, on another thread, “…nice place, shame about the people”.
But then, what else can you expect when acquisition of money for self gratification is the highest ideal in island society?
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We need a new constable that does not like power trips and picture taken The parish drops litter on my property, SHALL I GET TOUGH. DO as I say not as I do.
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I think it’s pathetic that it seems to be smokers which get majority of the blame. I do not agree when a cigarette is thrown on the floor when there is a bin around, however sometimes there isn’t. If i need to get rid of my cigarette and there are no bins around what are we supposed to do, let it burn into our fingers until we FINALY find a bin? Everyone who wants to moan about a tiny cigarette end on the floor, I would have thought you would have been more concerned about the chewing gum which seems to be everywhere.
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#31 L.I do not agree when a cigarette is thrown on the floor when there is a bin around, however sometimes there isn’t.
‘I would have thought you would have been more concerned about the chewing gum which seems to be everywhere.’
Why does it have to be an ‘either or’ situation. Both habits are obnoxious. If you hadn’t thought of how you were going to dispose of it you shouldn’t light it. Never heard of a pocket ash tray?
http://www.softashtray.com/ for example.
Same goes for the chewing gum.
Would you apply the same logic if there were no dogs### bins around?
Today I saw a moron van driver do the usual clever trick of lobbing a Red Bull can right over his roof onto the nearside. In order to achieve this feat the can has to have plenty left in it. How smart is that? Perhaps they drink it all then fill it with something else as ballast.
Nice place, shame about the morons.
Sorry if I have offended any genuine morons.
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#31 Just get one of those tiny ‘bin’ cases specifically for cigarette butts! It’s not exactly difficult and there are shops in Jersey selling them, then bin its contents when you get home. Or buy an e-cigarette.
Maybe it’s just the streets I use everyday but on them cigarettes are definitely the main cause of litter.
#27 You might get stressed by wrongly assuming that sharing an opinion is moaning. People can share their opinion while sitting enjoying a perfectly nice day, what you write is not always reflective of your mood. Anyway, even if people are in a moany mood I would think putting it on the web is probably very therapeutic
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@33, Leah this is very obviously moaning and the fact that people are moaning about other people littering and not providing alternative solutions to the one provided by the goverment is the most irritating of all. Its not moaning its B**ching.
P.S If people wanted a therapeutic feeling, they should go to therapy.
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Some have given solutions, more bins, those portable cigarette end bins,… those and fining are the only possible solutions but we can’t undertake them, that’s up to the States and the litterers.
But since litterers (inc. those that drop cigarette butts) clearly have no respect for themselves why do we think they would respect Jersey?
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FWIW, McDonald’s senior management (and I don’t mean just the local Jersey managers) have a hard and fast rule that a member of their crew goes outside the store regularly to pick up litter – especially items branded with the McDonald’s logo.
This little-known – but important – rule could be emulated by many other local fast food emporia, including pizza parlours.
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An afterthought to my previous contribution:
I visited Germany for the first time a few weeks ago. One thing that really impressed me was the cleanliness of the streets.
Aside from the national mindset (i.e. no resident of Germany would dream of dropping litter in a public place) there is a deposit on beer and soft drinks cans, and also on all plastic bottles.
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36 ‘McDonald’s senior management (and I don’t mean just the local Jersey managers) have a hard and fast rule that a member of their crew goes outside the store regularly to pick up litter – especially items branded with the McDonald’s logo.’
So the bone idle, inconsiderate, moronic, litterers get their litter picked up by someone else. No wonder they don’t need to have any compunction about littering!
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I wish the Spar shops would pick up the litter they generate, I have just been past the one at Haute Croix and there is plastic an other litter strewn on the roads nearby.
Get it picked up!
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Your all harping on about Smokers throwing their butts all over the floor which I do not agree with at all, but what about the town parks where all the winos leave their glass bottles, empty cans and other rubbish scattered everywhere when there are more bins there than throughout town. Oh & don’t forget the dirty smackheads who find it ok to drop their syringes where they like. Does it not apply to them because they are all self inflicted addicts of some kind……
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39
I agree. I often find half of the contents from their wheely bins blown into my garden…..and I’m not talking about the odd sweet wrapper, i’m talking empty boxes and wholesale packaging!!
As for everyone blaming the seagulls…..how low can you go!? Take some responsibility for gods sake instead of blaming everything (one) else!
They may be a pest but they are not to blame for the litter problems….WE ARE.
No litter = no seagull problem!
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How about setting up a scheme where those on income support give something back to the community. I believe the Parish Welfare system had something similar in place and this could prove to be an incentive for some to get a job rather than do, I’m sure what they would call “unpaid work”. It’s high time some pressure was applied to benefit recipients, some of whom have never worked and probably never will but make it a “lifestyle choice”. Hardworking, tax paying citizens are tired of picking up the tab for these individuals, many of whom can’t even be bothered to get their kids to school and therefore perpetuate the cycle of long-term benefit scroungers!
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