Glasgow City Council is moving the Clean Glasgow campaign onto the next level by announcing an enforcement focus on under-16s, and pupils from St Mungo’s Academy are supporting the no-nonsense move.
From next week (Monday 18 February), enforcement officers will be patrolling the streets around schools in the city, fining any pupil aged between 12-16 who is caught dropping litter or engaging in similar anti-social behaviour such as writing graffiti. Fines will be posted out retrospectively to the young person’s home address.
The Clean Glasgow campaign launched in February of last year, commencing with a three-month education phase before teams of community enforcement officers hit the streets to fine those littering around Glasgow. This was replicated in schools with the launch of the Schools Charter in May 2007. The enforcement phase commences today.
A survey carried out on the lead up to the launch of Clean Glasgow’s Schools Charter revealed that almost 90% of pupils backed the City Council’s £4m campaign to rid the city’s streets and communities of litter, graffiti, fly tipping, fly posting and dog dirt. The survey also uncovered that 69% of pupils believe young people, like adults, should receive a £50 fine if caught dropping litter.
Rebecca Park, a pupil at St Mungo’s Academy commented: “Most of the pupils here know not to drop litter in the streets or around our school but those who do affect the way our school is seen in the local community.
“I think that fining young people who ignore the messages that Clean Glasgow and our school send out is a good idea and will hopefully make them think twice before dropping litter again.”
John Reilly, head teacher at St Mungo’s Academy, said: “We fully support Clean Glasgow’s decision to fine young people who are caught dropping litter. We promote a strong eco message in our school, which includes taking good care of your local environment so our pupils are aware that this sort of behaviour is unacceptable.
“I hope that this action by the Clean Glasgow enforcement officers will ensure that young people across the city are aware that littering is a serious issue and will not be tolerated.”
Councillor Steven Purcell, Leader of Glasgow City Council, commented: “Schools have played a huge part in the success of the Clean Glasgow campaign, with over 2200 under-16s taking part in clean ups across the city, and 66 schools signed up to the Schools Charter.
“When we launched Clean Glasgow just over a year ago, we made it clear that enforcement would form an important part of our strategy in tackling the issue. It is recognised that this scheme may be viewed by some as controversial however we hope that by issuing fixed penalty notices to the minority of under 16s engaging in this type of antisocial behaviour we can continue to make an impact to the cleanliness of our city.”
A spokesperson for Glasgow City Council, commented: “The law allow allows us to issue fixed penalty notices to under 16s, however we hope that as a result of engagement with schools that the number of fines issued will be very low.
“If a fixed penalty notice is given to a young person, it will be issued retrospectively by post to their home address, accompanied by a letter to parents. If payment is not received within the appropriate time period and following the issue of another request for payment, the young person will be asked to undertake appropriate community work in their local area. If the young person refuses to take part in this type of activity, a decision will be made regarding the referral of the young person to the Children’s Reporter.”
During the initial phase of the Schools Charter, Clean Glasgow enforcement officers exempted areas around schools from their patrols. This exemption has now been lifted and these areas will be patrolled as other areas of the city are.