Waste firm told to step up efforts on dog fouling and fast food litter

On January 18 Mid Ulster District Council became the fourth council in Northern Ireland to engage WISE (Waste Investigations, Support and Enforcement) in a 12-month pilot.

Through the pilot WISE officers work seven days a week to provide a visible deterrent for littering offences and the detection of such offences across the district.

However, speaking at a meeting of council’s development committee last week, Sinn Fein councillor John McNamee expressed concern that of the 651 fixed penalty notices issued by WISE approximately 88% were issued in Cookstown (307 fines) and Dungannon (266 fines) alone.

He questioned why such a high number of fines have been recorded in these two towns and claimed the enforcement seems “weighted against the smoker”.

“I would have concerns that the wardens seem to be targeting smokers,” said Mr McNamee.

“Over 95% of the total fines are for cigarette butts. I am not justifying any type of littering but it seems things are weighted against the smoker here.

“We have 622 out of 651 fines for cigarette butts and five for dog fouling and three for fast food littering. In our workshops to discuss the option of employing WISE there was very little talk about cigarette litter and a lot more about dog fouling and fast food packing being dumped.

“I would not like to think they are targeting the smoker to get their salaries paid while ignoring the other stuff.”

Independent Ccouncillor Barry Monteith told the chamber he was sceptical of privatising this service from the start and added: “There needs to be a serious question asked to the viability of this scheme, we are three months in and it is an unmitigated disaster so far.”

SDLP group leader, councillor Malachy Quinn, said he is still regularly contacted about dog fouling and other rubbish in his area and said that is what WISE need to focus on.

“We need to see the issues we raise being addressed and for this programme to be a success we need to rethink this and go to our targeted areas,” he said.

Councillor Trevor Wilson said WISE must be told of these problems and given a chance to tackle them before noting “anything that takes littering off the street is to be welcomed”.

Kieran Gordon, council’s assistant director of health, leisure and wellbeing, said he would let WISE officers know of these concerns with “due urgency and importance”.