Council staff too busy for new powers

NEW powers to issue fixed penalty tickets for fly-posting, graffiti, dog fouling and litter dropping are unlikely to be taken up at Felixstowe.

Even though there are by-laws in place to deal with some of the problems, the government is now allowing town council staff to be trained to issue tickets if they see the offences being committed.

However councillors in the resort say they cannot afford to take on any more staff because of the cost.

Town clerk Susan Robinson said if existing staff were to take on the roles of issuing the tickets, they would need to be sent on training courses run by environmental group Encams.

“It is not just the cost of training members of staff but if they were to take up these new roles, they would be diverted from other duties and all our members of staff are completely occupied with the work they already do,” she said.

“That would mean the only other option would be to employ extra staff to carry this work out.

“The other problem then is that fines can only be issued if the member of staff sees the offence taking place and catches the offender.”

Mrs Robinson said the government's advice warned councils they would need to be pretty optimistic if they thought the amount of fines collected would pay for the cost of running a scheme.

Town councillors decided the best option will be to explore whether the new Safer Neighbourhood Teams being set up for different areas to deal with anti-social behaviour could look at the specific problems of fly-posting, graffiti and litter.

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