Almost nine out of 10 fines issued by Bristol City Council’s litter police have been for dropped cigarette butts, bosses have revealed. A whopping 88 per cent of the 16,000 fixed penalty notices dished out by enforcement firm 3GS since it began patrolling the streets have been to smokers, despite promises that the contractors would target a wider range of offences.
The environmental operatives took over the role in February 2019 when the council dropped controversial company Kingdom following an 18-month pilot scheme marred by numerous complaints about dubious tactics used by officers to catch people dropping rubbish. About 90 per cent of the 13,000 fixed penalty notices issued by Kingdom were smoking-related, and a council scrutiny meeting in April 2019 was told this would change as 3GS had a broader remit.
A Bristol City Council officer told members at the time: “The main difference since they started is that the action they have been taking is across a range of offences.” But in a guest post on mayor Marvin Rees’s blog on Tuesday, October 25, 3GS operations manager Gordon Brady admitted that almost four years on, 14,000 of the 16,000 fines have been handed to smokers.
