Councils across Britain have raised almost £20m from fines for littering since 2010, handing out penalties at the rate of nine every hour.
According to figures obtained by The Sunday Times under the Freedom of Information Act, councils issued 477,957 fixed-penalty notices for littering between January 1, 2010, and December 31, 2015. They collected £19,806,949 over that period but the data does not reveal how many notices were unpaid.
However, the total number of fines and the sum collected across the UK are likely to be considerably higher because, of the 434 local authorities approached, only 229 provided comparable data.
The rate at which fines were levied increased from 48,000 in 2010 to 115,000 last year and councils more than doubled their annual income from £2.1m in 2010 to £4.9m in 2015.
The London borough of Enfield earned £1.5m from fines over the period, the most of any council and 150 times the national average of £10,000.
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It was among four London boroughs (the others are Hillingdon, Newham and Islington) in the top five. Maidstone in Kent had the second- highest income from fines.
The other five making up the top 10 are Broxbourne council in Hertfordshire (£0.62m); Belfast city council (£0.61m); the London borough of Merton (£0.56m); Newcastle city council (£0.52m); and Trafford council in Greater Manchester (£0.49m).
Councils dispute the suggestion that they are cashing in and say the money raised from fines does not cover the cost of cleaning up the streets.
In Enfield, the litter enforcement teams, who were nicknamed “the Black Watch” when they began, now have plenty of supporters. One enthusiast is retired estate agent Nigel King. “We would do well to copy Singapore. There, people know they will be treated harshly for dropping litter and it is very clean as a result,” he said.
King, 70, runs a community clean-up group that is independent of the council and took part in the national Clean for the Queen campaign. “I read an article about a visitor complaining that they had been charged £80 for dropping a cigarette butt,” he said.
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“They said, ‘Is this how Enfield welcomes its visitors?’ and I thought, ‘Yes, this is how Enfield should welcome people who visit our area and drop litter.’”
Daniel Anderson, Enfield council’s cabinet member for environment, was equally robust. “We make no apology for targeting those who drop litter, adopting a zero tolerance approach.
“It is essential that a strong uncompromising message is sent out that makes it abundantly clear that littering is not ‘normal’ and anyone who sullies our environment should be treated with the contempt and disdain that they truly deserve.”
Not all councils are so strident, often because of cost-cutting. “A lot of councils through cutbacks have reduced their enforcement teams,” said Allison Ogden-Newton, chief executive of Keep Britain Tidy. “We estimate about a third of councils do not have enforcement teams at all.”
She conceded that the teams can be “very unpopular” but added: “We definitely think that they are a tool in the arsenal of local authorities to affect behaviour change.
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“They are more effective if they are carried out in the context of wider messaging, so that people understand there is a social benefit to changing the way they behave.”
Some campaigners encourage the public to confront those who drop litter. Keep Britain Tidy does not advocate such action but Ogden-Newton admitted she does it. “Mostly I get abuse,” she said.
In Enfield, King’s litter- collecting group has found, among all the usual rubbish, “a whole Dyson vacuum cleaner, more than one complete set of golf clubs, and an exhaust from a Mercedes-Benz”.
Little wonder, perhaps, that he supports the raising of local littering fines from £80 to £150.
Additional reporting: Daniel Dunford