I WAS disgusted by the £50 fine given to an Acomb pensioner ('Brian fumes at £50 fine for dropping the stub of his roll-up', May 22).

To introduce a law where you must put your cigarette ends in a litter bin is ridiculous.

Lighted cigarettes dropped into a litter bin could and would start a fire.

Everyone I have spoken to has said they knew nothing about the newly-introduced, stupid law.

The city council is trying all ways to take every penny they can from the people of York.

Teenagers are hard to catch to pay a £50 fine, they just laugh and run away.

A pensioner can't.

F C Thompson,

Barkston Avenue,

Acomb, York.

...WE are not discriminating against anyone, says York environment officer Jackie Armitage.

Then she says portable ashtrays as well as stubs fitted to litter bins in the town centre will be provided to dispose of cigarettes properly.

Other people were approached and encouraged not to drop litter, just spoken to, not fined.

I am all for a litter-free city and clean streets and I don't wish to discriminate against anyone.

But why do we have to put up with the smell of horse dung in our city?

If we are to get a £50 fine for dropping a cigarette, where are the fines for smelly horse dung droppings?

P J Markwick,

Forge Close,

Huntington, York.

Updated: 10:15 Wednesday, May 26, 2004