Meeting Erupts Over Guidance v Law On Wrexham’s £75 Litter Fines

A heated war of words broke out yesterday between town centre representatives and a Wrexham Councillor as calls were made to review Wrexham’s new zero tolerance approach to littering.

The lively exchange came during a discussion surrounding the introduction of the ‘Kingdom Enforcement Officers’ – an external company who were brought in by Wrexham Council to help tackle dog fouling and littering issues across the County Borough.

Over the next 11 months a pilot scheme is taking place across Wrexham, with those caught littering or letting their dogs foul facing a £75 Fixed Penalty Notice.

During the last week of April over 100 Fixed Penalty Notices had been issued for littering and dog fouling – however questions have been asked regarding the ‘zero tolerance approach’ that has been taken in tackling the above issues.

Since the robust approach began, several traders and business owners have voiced concerns that the clampdown is ‘scaring shoppers away’ from the town centre. On day one of the scheme we documented how Eagles Meadow’s Kevin Critchley branded it ‘bully boy’ tactics.

In what had already been a lively Town Centre Forum Meeting, these concerns came to a head yesterday when Forum Chair Nigel Lewis and Lead Member for Environment and Transport Cllr David Bithell clashed over the topic.

Mr Critchley raised the issue saying it was the ‘elephant in the room’ and asked if there were any plans to review the current clampdown on littering in the town centre.

Cllr Bithell reiterated his previous message of ‘if you don’t drop litter or allow dogs to foul, you have nothing to fear’ – adding that plans to employ a private partner to tackle littering and dog fouling was discussed clearly in December’s Executive Board and had full political support.

He said: “There are four enforcement officers and a team leader, total of five working in every ward in the County Borough. I wish to respond to front page article in The Leader which has an inaccurate statement that was made by a Community Councillor in Offa to say we are we not following proper guidance.

“I can tell the Forum the guidance is just that, guidance. We are not following the guidance we are following legislation. We don’t have to issue warnings for issuing tickets for dog fouling and littering.

Cllr Bithell added: “It is a 12 month trial and we will monitor Kingdom closely. Issues and concerns have been raised, there is some frustration and we have noted it. We speak and liaise with them on a regular basis.

“Nigel made a comment there was no publicity on this matter in December. There was quite a lot and did send Nigel copies the council have done, one of our tweets about it was one of the largest tweets on local government websites on one particular day.

“There has been positive response from ward members and Community Councils welcoming for dog fouling and Kingdom are about to take on another members of staff to look at dog fouling in particular.”

In what turned into a firm exchange of words, Mr Lewis described the introduction of the enforcement officers as ‘hitting us with a sledgehammer’.

He added: “I didn’t say there wasn’t any publicity, I said there wasn’t much significant publicity. There was no consultation with the Forum. It is abhorrent that the day you reduced car parking you hit us with another sledgehammer with people hiding behind bushes to pounce on people.”

Mr Lewis went onto request members of the Forum raise their hands if they knew that they could get fined for dropping a cigarette end on the floor from April 1st, then pointing at the room asking Cllr Bithell to see the response.

However Cllr Bithell defended the clampdown, saying: “There was extensive publicity. You have got a bee in your bonnet, it was an open forum at the Executive Board, the papers were circulated, there were tweets and Facebook posts.”

A clearly exasperated Cllr Bithell went on: “It is an operational matter for the Council, it is not a matter for the Town Centre Forum. As elected members we made the decision politically for a zero tolerance policy in response to residents who have raised concerns across the County Borough.

“It costs the authority £1.2m to clean up in the County Borough by providing staffing to clean up litter. My personal view and view of elected members is surely we would want to encourage clean streets and no dog fouling. I would be shocked if the Forum are saying you want dirty streets.”

Mr Lewis interjected: “When you say it’s not a matter of the Forum, business rates were mentioned earlier. We have people and volunteers all trying to pull the town together, we constantly get hammered by the local or Welsh Government to pay for inefficiency.”

At this point Mr Critchley waded into the debate saying it was ‘rubbish’ that by opposing the firm nature of ticketing there was an implication of support for littering and dog fouling.

He said: “The basic query we’ve had isn’t about cleaning up dog dirt, litter, its the zero tolerance policy as applied in town centre. The town centre was not a dirty area, our concern is that a zero tolerance policy for petty littering is driving people from this town.”

“We want Kingdom officers to be told to follow UK Government guidelines, giving people chance to pick litter up, rather than just slapping a £75 fine.”

The ‘debate’ became rather tit for tat with the legislation v guidance debate ongoing in a loud manner:

Nigel Lewis to Cllr Bithell: If you complied with Government Guidelines…
Cllr Bithell: They are not.
Nigel Lewis: They are.
Cllr Bithell: They are not.
Nigel Lewis: They are.
Cllr Bithell: I wish people would get their facts right.
Nigel Lewis: I have this document it says UK Gov on it, it is Government, ok?
Cllr Bithell: It is not. We are not following DEFRA guidance, we are following legislation.

This ongoing exchange became more heated to the point another forum member asked the Chair to ‘leave it’. For those interested it appears this is the UK Gov document cited by the Forum Chair Nigel Lewis, with this being what we believe is the legislation quoted by Wrexham Council. EDIT: Thanks to Nigel who has emailed us this link of the document that was referred to!

Finally the debate moved forward with questions asked on if people are being fined for ‘accidental issues’, with the meeting told there have been two instances where tickets had been rescinded. Video footage was referred to as showing how some allegations against Enforcement Officers had later turned out not to be true.

Another example was given where a ticket had been issued to a dog owner where the dog had run on to a market pitch, triggering a ticket. Subsequently it was shown there was incorrect or no signage to warn people, and therefore the ticket was cancelled. The zero tolerance approach was perhaps then illustrated with this ‘good news’ of ticket cancellation zapped with the meeting told extra new signage is being ordered.

With the temperature rising further still, the Chair bellowed at Cllr Bithell an invitation to note the remarks made and asked that the Council ‘consider the Government guidelines at least’, adding: “We have asked you to change it, you know our position, but must make it clear we are getting reports from businesses in town on the way it was introduced and administered by this administration is driving people out of the town centre.

“I would convey on behalf of the businesses we know, I am asking you again to follow government guidelines.”

Cllr Bithell firmly replied: “You have made your position quite clear, we are not altering our position.”

Thankfully the member of North Wales Police who was sat in-between Nigel Lewis and Cllr Bithell was not required to intervene at any point. Sooner after the Officer did calmly provide an update saying that he hopes to provide detailed policing updates in future meetings – and that the recent busy Bank Holiday went off in town ‘quite pleasantly’.