Litter louts beware . . the eye in the sky can catch you again

CAMERAS to target litter louts look set to return to city streets after more than 150 people were hit with on-the-spot fines during a council crackdown.

The drive led to claims of over-zealous behaviour from the environmental wardens, who were backed by CCTV camera vans and charged with stopping anyone they saw dropping litter or cigarette ends.

But city council bosses say the move proved its worth and they are considering using the same tactics again.

The initiative ran for six weeks before Christmas.

During it, 152 litter louts were punished with fixed penalty notices and 146 businesses were warned for putting waste out for collection when they were not supposed to.

The council's tactics divided public opinion at the time after one woman was stopped for discarding the end of her sandwich, while wardens followed a man into his music class to reprimand him for dropping a cigarette.

A team of seven wardens patrolled the streets, supported the city's CCTV van, which was used to gather evidence.

On one day on George IV Bridge, two large pivoted cameras and several smaller ones on the CCTV unit were filming passers-by, while at least two pairs of wardens patrolled the streets.

Those who were caught littering were hit with £50 on-the-spot fines.

Councillor Sue Tritton, the Lib Dem environment spokeswoman, has called for the vans to be sent out again, suggesting such tough tactics could eventually save the council money on the cost of cleaning the streets.

She said: "Anything that stops the people of Edinburgh from dropping litter has got to be a good thing. It is incredibly expensive to collect litter and the sooner we can get rid of the problem the better.

"I would like to see this sort of thing elsewhere in the city, and there are still other issues that the wardens need to address, but it is a resource issue.

"The litter dropped by school pupils is a real issue across Edinburgh and this needs to be tackled as much as city centre litter."

The latest figures show the number of fines issued for littering fell dramatically over the summer months last year.

The statistics revealed that just 234 penalties were issued in the six months from March to September, compared with 321 in the previous half-year.

The drop comes despite the introduction of Scotland's smoking ban, and the problems of discarded cigarette ends on city streets.

A spokeswoman for Keep Scotland Beautiful backed the council's initiative.

She said: "Unfortunately, there is a minority of people who still drop litter and the council is to be congratulated on using the tools at its disposable to stamp out the problem.

"There is a lot of good preventative work in terms of education going on in Edinburgh but with that you also need the enforcement action to go with it."

Councillor Sheila Gilmore, the city's housing and community leader, said: "The Services for Communities safety unit is constantly reviewing its procedures to ensure a high level of service throughout the city.

"We will continue to assess the service need and target resources where required throughout the city in response to complaints, CIMS [cleanliness index monitoring system] scores and intelligence gathered through routine patrols.

"Edinburgh's community safety partnership has recently agreed to additional coverage to support the work of our environmental wardens."

The CCTV unit, which is operated in partnership by the council and the police, has been used on a weekly basis in the Capital since 2004.

The council has issued around 5000 fixed penalty tickets for littering and fly-tipping since October 2001.