More than 8,000 litter fines issued in Swansea since 2013

More than 8,000 fixed penalties have been issued to litterbugs in Swansea after being caught throwing litter on the ground over the last three years

Swansea Council launched its crackdown on litter problems in the city in 2013 by drafting in an external litter enforcement team to deal with litter problems in the city centre and elsewhere.

Since that time, a total of 8,103 fixed penalty notices have been issued. A further 109 have been issued to dog owners for ignoring the seasonal dog beach ban on a small number of beaches. Another 27 were issued in relation to dog fouling in public places.

Cllr David Hopkins, Swansea Council’s Cabinet Member for Environment and Transportation, said: “Residents in Swansea deserve to have a clean, litter-free city to live in.

“Our aim is to make sure that the public understand the risks of throwing litter on the ground instead of using a bin. If they are caught by one of our litter enforcement team then they will be issued with a fixed penalty.

“We provide hundreds of litter bins for the public to use, so there is no excuse.”

The Tidy Swansea campaign has also included efforts to tackle aggressive seagulls in the city centre when reports of shoppers being attacked for the food they were carrying had been made to the Council.

This led to advice to shoppers not to throw food on the ground for the birds or they also risk receiving a litter fine.

More recently the Council has announced plans to introduce dedicated teams at two of the region’s popular beaches – Caswell and Langland. The teams will be responsible for litter-picking, emptying bins and keeping toilet facilities clean.

Cllr Hopkins said: “Our beaches are usually very busy during the school summer holidays, so it makes sense to provide dedicated staff at these sites to manage day-to-day litter problems and make sure our visitors leave with a good impression of the city.”