Cleaning bill prompts call to litterbugs
A WHOPPING £4m in taxpayers' money is wasted every year by litter louts according to furious council chiefs.
This week Coun Clive Hudson, cabinet member for the environment said ‘enough is enough’.
He said it was time the culprits realised what their crime was depriving the city of, adding: “This is a huge amount of taxpayers’ hard-earned money that we are quite literally being forced to throw away.
“I would much rather see it spent on filling more potholes, building more children’s play areas and planting more flowers, which is what people want.
“It is time these criminals started thinking about their actions. How can anyone think this behaviour is acceptable?”
Coun Hudson said the council had tried everything within its power to tackle the problem, but even the threat of hefty fines was not enough of a deterrent.
He said: “We issued more than 70 tickets in one day recently. There is no excuse for throwing rubbish on the floor as far as I’m concerned – it is a criminal offence. If there isn’t a bin, put it in your pocket until you find one, or until you get home.
“Everytime someone throws a piece of litter in the street, they may as well chuck a tenner on the floor because in many cases it is their money that will be paying to clear it up.”
But he is not the only one who is fed up of people treating Wakefield like a rubbish tip.
This week Express readers have been having their say on our Facebook site too.
Chris Winterburn said: “I frequently walk from Pinderfields to the Thornes area and all I see is litter.
“I have penfriends across the globe. They ask me to describe Wakefield to them and I describe Wakefield as ‘grubby’ because it is.”
Joan Womack-Radley said people should have to do community service and go litter picking for eight hours if they throw litter.
Janet Greenhough agreed. She said: “I was driving down Blacker Lane last week and the van in front of me threw out bottles, crisps packets, cigarette butts and some fast food boxes.”
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Weather for Wakefield
Thursday 24 May 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 12 C to 24 C
Wind Speed: 12 mph
Wind direction: North east
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 10 C to 22 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: East
