Dropped cigarette ends most common litter fine in Bristol

Fines for dropping cigarettes far outstrip any other type of litter offence

Almost nine out of 10 fines issued by a city's litter enforcement company were given for discarded cigarette butts, it has been revealed.

Of the 16,000 fixed-penalty notices given by firm 3GS since it was contracted by Bristol City Council, 88 per cent were issued to smokers.

3GS took over in February 2019 when the council stopped working with the previous enforcement company Kingdom.

About 90 per cent of the fines issued by Kingdom were given to smokers.

The authority was told this would change when 3GS took over.

A council officer told a scrutiny meeting in April 2019 that 3GS had been taking action across "a range of offences".

But in a guest post on mayor Marvin Rees's blog on Tuesday, 3GS operations manager Gordon Brady said that almost four years on, more than 14,000 of the 16,000 fines it had issued were given to smokers who had dropped their cigarette ends.

He wrote: "Officers have been patrolling the city every day to cut down on environmental crime and increase environmental awareness.

"When caught, perpetrators are given a fixed penalty notice on the spot."

He said more than 3,000 cases had ended up with people being taken to court for refusing to pay the fine.

Mr Brady said 3GS had tackled a broad range of other offences including graffiti, flyposting, fly-tipping, nuisance parking and waste issues, as well as failing to clear up dog mess, not keeping pet dogs under control and drinking in a no-drinking area.

He said: "The work our officers do in preventing environmental crime is vital for our city.

"The crime has an extremely negative impact on our streets and costs Bristol's council taxpayers millions of pounds to clear up every year."

Follow BBC West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: [e-mail]