Guilty! But really...

11:05am Wednesday 12th September 2012 in Letters By Reader's letter

AFTER leaving work one afternoon, I walked along the riverbank towards the city centre. I was smoking a cigarette. Nine times out of ten I would have used the bin at the bottom of Lendal steps, but on this occasion I flicked the butt on to the ground just past the City of York Rowing Club.

I was immediately apprehended by the council employees who issued me with an on-the-spot fine of £75; £50 if paid within ten days.

While I admit I committed an offence, I do feel the punishment is out of all proportion. Perhaps a warning or even a fixed fine in the region of £25 might have been more appropriate.

I feel there are far serious issues of antisocial behaviour that need addressing. The imminent arrival of a new intake of students is only going to exacerbate the problems.

As a resident of the city centre, I walk to work in the early hours, to be confronted by upturned wheelie bins, black bin bags with their contents strewn across roads and pavements and all manner of fast-food and human detritus in the streets. Where are you then, you litter bug council enforcers?

Coupled with the seemingly untouchable drug and alcohol abusers, the cyclists with immunity from the rules of the road and the general attitude of youth culture (not all of them) this city is becoming less pleasant.

Yes, I will pay my fine and I do not intend to re-offend, but come on City of York Council , at least try to tackle the greater problem.

Simon Wallace, Bollans Court, Goodramgate, York.

Comments(13)

Despairing Yorkie says...
12:38pm Wed 12 Sep 12

What a classic example of "whataboutery"! All the other issues you raise Mr Wallace may or may not be a problem (but I doubt it - the remarks about new intakes of students and cyclists are classic irrelevancies) but they have nothing to do with the fact that you got caught littering and don't like having to pay the fine. Right up there with speeding motorists and their "why aren't you our catching real criminals" whining.

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Fat Harry says...
12:47pm Wed 12 Sep 12

I'd fine you another £50 for the self-pitying whingeing.

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NoNewsIsGoodNews says...
1:41pm Wed 12 Sep 12

Why did you accept the fine in the first place? I would point blank refuse to talk to the council wombles, and I certainly wouldn't give them my name or address.

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JudithM says...
2:16pm Wed 12 Sep 12

What a lot of tosh from the first two posters, who obviously have not read the letter clearly!! The whole point here is that smokers are a 'soft target' and these 'wardens' (I would sooo love to call them something else) know that smokers pay up, and very, very rarely give any aggro, whilst the drunken hen and stag parties, and race goers and drunken students who cover our streets in tons of garbage are much more likely to give them bother. Add on the top of this the fact that smokers are purposefully targeted - just because they smoke. I say well done Simon for owning up, coughing up and asking for answers, which of course, you will never get - well except for more 'shut up you dirty filthy smoker' - just watch them role in!

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Mr Happy says...
2:59pm Wed 12 Sep 12

Wonderful nonsense from another total idiot!

He litters the place but still manages to get in a rant at students and cyclists. At least now your neighbours know what an utter fool they live beside.

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JudithM says...
3:01pm Wed 12 Sep 12

Mr Happy wrote:
Wonderful nonsense from another total idiot!

He litters the place but still manages to get in a rant at students and cyclists. At least now your neighbours know what an utter fool they live beside.
How did it go - oh yes - ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzz
zzzzzzzzzzzzzz

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Mr Happy says...
3:10pm Wed 12 Sep 12

JudithM wrote:
Mr Happy wrote:
Wonderful nonsense from another total idiot!

He litters the place but still manages to get in a rant at students and cyclists. At least now your neighbours know what an utter fool they live beside.
How did it go - oh yes - ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzz

zzzzzzzzzzzzzz
You're catching on Jude. These rants against cycling really are so so boring aren't they love.

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JudithM says...
3:11pm Wed 12 Sep 12

Mr Happy wrote:
JudithM wrote:
Mr Happy wrote:
Wonderful nonsense from another total idiot!

He litters the place but still manages to get in a rant at students and cyclists. At least now your neighbours know what an utter fool they live beside.
How did it go - oh yes - ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzz


zzzzzzzzzzzzzz
You're catching on Jude. These rants against cycling really are so so boring aren't they love.
Like most rants, but it is good to get things off your chest once in a while :)

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Jennifer Hunter says...
6:06pm Wed 12 Sep 12

The best thing to do, Simon, is carry a portable ashtray - I imagine that these really do deter eager enforcement officers and annoy them at the same time because they cannot pick on the user for littering. It's a pity, however, that such vigilant individuals who fine folks £75 (or £50) don't catch those who perpetrate serious crime. A couple of Fridays ago, I was approaching Lendal Bridge and saw a police van and the area near the steps was cordoned off as apparently some poor chap had been injured badly by falling down the steps and this was suspicious. Obviously cigarette butts and disposal of them are priority acitivities for local authorities!!

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Friedrich Hayek says...
6:51pm Wed 12 Sep 12

You should've told the council employees to find the nearest kitchen and get back to it.

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powerwatt says...
9:36pm Wed 12 Sep 12

As a smoker the writer is a bit of a whiner.

If you don't want to get fined, don't throw the butts on the floor. I have a mobile ash tray that was given to me and can be bought for peanuts, or given away by some groups.

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PKH says...
1:41pm Thu 13 Sep 12

powerwatt wrote:
As a smoker the writer is a bit of a whiner.

If you don't want to get fined, don't throw the butts on the floor. I have a mobile ash tray that was given to me and can be bought for peanuts, or given away by some groups.
Agreed and the amount of smokers that throw butts down within a few feet of a bin is unbelievable.

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Ray winter says...
8:42pm Sat 15 Sep 12

Pay the fine quit whining the streets are littered with smokers waste you see them every day take a last what looks like painful drag before reentering the pub or shop and casually throw stub down for someone else to pick up

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