Government changes to litter penalties

John Fareham and John Abbott report that the Government are considering beefing up the penalties for dropping litter, including specific penalties for drivers and passengers throwing rubbish out of cars such as that which appears regularly on Fairfax Avenue.

Normally, we would not mention national issues here, but the frequency with which takeaway food packaging, including but not exclusively comprising that from McDonalds, has been seen on Fairfax Avenue, and in particular at the southern end, leads us to the view that much of the rubbish found near the junction with Bricknell Avenue is likelier to have been thrown from passing motor vehicles than to have been dropped by pedestrians. We therefore look forward to the formal announcement of these measures, already trailed in the national press, and hope that they will act as a deterrent to the wilful abandonment of rubbish where it does not belong.