Almost £0.4m Made From 'Environmental Enforcement' Fines In Brighton & Hove

Four dog walkers were fined for failing to clear up after their pets last year while hundreds of firms were targeted for offences linked to business waste.

Their fines and warnings were among thousands issued in 2022-23 by the Brighton and Hove City Council environmental enforcement team, generating £382,000.

A report to the council’s City Environment, South Downs and the Sea Committee listed the number of fines and notices and warnings dished out for various offences including littering, fly-tipping and graffiti.

The report indicated that 1,654 fines were issued for industrial and commercial waste offences, including penalties imposed on businesses that put their bins out at the wrong time or place.

The council dished out 728 fines for littering and 396 for commercial fly-tipping, the committee was told yesterday (Tuesday 20 June).

Businesses that are “registered waste carriers” must have a “duty of care certificate” but 354 fines were handed out for “non-compliance” and 199 for those failing to produce a certificate.

The report said that, on Monday 5 June, seven members of the council’s environmental enforcement team joined the Environment Agency, Sussex Police and the Commercial Vehicle Unit to check commercial vehicles entering and leaving Brighton by Preston Drove.

More than 100 vehicles were stopped for licence, document and safety checks, with nine drivers received fixed penalty notices for not having a waste carrier licence.

Sussex Police fined 10 for driver or vehicle offences and five were given fixed penalty notices from the Commercial Vehicle Unit for having dangerous tyres, insecure loads or defective brakes.

The report added:

“It was a positive day, with illegal and dangerous vehicles dealt with. Those walking by welcomed the presence of the organisations involved and the action being taken. Another day is being planned.”

The council issued 230 “community protection warnings” and 128 “community protection notices” as part of a drive to tackle graffiti.

More than half of the community protection notices were followed up with a fine while 16 fines were issued to people found to have been responsible for graffiti.

Councillors voted to stop sending warnings to small and independent businesses and to stop imposing fines on them when their premises were targeted by taggers. A number had complained that they were victims of crime who were, in effect, being “punished twice”.

A total of 37 fines were handed for breaching new rules banning single-use barbecues on council-owned land such as beaches.

Dog fouling was at the bottom of the list, with just four people fined while six people were fined for fly-posting and 15 for littering from a vehicle.

Some 42 people were fined for having a dog in a place where they were banned while 57 people – more than one a week – were fined for spitting, urinating or defecating.