Three people fined for dropping cigarette ends

THREE people have each been fined £75 for dropping cigarette ends in Carmarthenshire.

The council’s environmental enforcement officers issued the fixed penalty notices to a woman in Stepney Street, Llanelli on Saturday; a man in McDonald’s car park and a man in St Catherine’s Walk in Carmarthen on Sunday.

Failure to pay could result in prosecution in the magistrates court and a maximum fine of up to £2,500.

Research shows that discarded cigarette ends make up the largest proportion of litter in Carmarthenshire with 83 per cent of litter found on the county’s streets smoking-related.

As a result, Carmarthenshire County Council has a launched a campaign to highlight the problem of smoking-related litter and encourage people to put their cigarette butts in the bin.

Executive Board Member for the Environment Cllr Philip Hughes said: “Many people do not think of cigarette ends as litter, but they are. They make an area look unsightly and they are difficult and very expensive to clean up – the ends fall into grates and cracks in the pavement which makes them almost impossible to remove by normal cleaning.

“Hopefully these fines will help to raise awareness of this type of litter. We do not want to fine people but we will not hesitate to do so if they continue to litter in this way.”