Only one third of people issued fines for littering in Meath paid up

PAUL MURPHY
One hundred and fifty eight people were issued with fines by Meath County Council for littering but only 57 people paid up, a report from the council has revealed.

People’s record in paying fines for these offences over the past four years is poor, going on the evidence of the council’s own statistics given to Fine Gael Cllr Noel French. In 2015, 365 fines were issued and just 122 paid. In 2016, 303 fines were issued but only 97 paid and in 2017 125 fines went out to litterers and just 55 paid.

Dog owners who allowed their pets to foul public spaces were also pursued by the council – five fines were issued for this offence in 2015 and one person paid. In 2016 four fines were issued and two paid. For the year 2017 three fines went out and two people paid up. Last year, nine fines were issued but just three paid.

Cllr French welcomed the fact that nine fines had been issued last year and described it as a major improvement on 2016 and 2017 and “a huge jump” from 2013 and 2014 when he first joined the council and when no fines were issued. He said that sufficient evidence of littering was required before a case could be brought to court. However, while individuals were keen to report littering problems, getting them into court to give evidence was more problematic. This was particularly so in the case of dog fouling.

He said he had received numerous complaints about fouling on footpaths. Dogs were the responsibility of their owners and not cleaning up after them was “absolutely unacceptable”. The vast majority of owners were responsible but a small number ignored their social duty, Cllr French said.
“We need to send out a message that dog fouling is disgusting and unacceptable”, he said.

He wants “more stick, and less carrot” in dealing with litter offences of all kinds.
Council officials said that the council had spent €1.598 million on litter control and prevention last year. On top of fines issued by its environment section, a further 44 warning letters were sent to people leaving litter around the council’s bottle banks.

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