Fixed Penalty notice help please **SETTLED**

[jet_black]

Re: Fixed Penalty notice help please

That was all there was in the envelope! I did wonder if it was someone having a joke to start with, but the letter was franked. There isn't even a telephone contact number!

[enaid]

Re: Fixed Penalty notice help please

Blimey, you would think an important document like that would at least be legible. Sorry to butt in.

[Amethyst]

Re: Fixed Penalty notice help please

they havent identified the vehicle at all.... unless they stopped and properly identified the perpetrator (and thus been given false details) shouldnt they have stated ' the driver of vehichle registration xxxx, regsitered keeper Mr xxxxx of XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX address' as opposed to definately stating his name ?



rest not really helpful....seems they having a bit of a crackdown(so probably have targets to meet)

was actually looking to see if there were any scams of this type happening/examples of other similar tickets people might have posted up.








Nottingham litter bug fined

• 7 RISK MANAGEMENT ISSUES

All staff who have the delegated responsibility to enforce this legislation will have had the necessary training to perform the enforcement duties required. Although there is no formal right of appeal in the event of a Fixed Penalty Notice being served, we do offer the facility of an appeal to be made which will be considered by an officer, other than the one who issued the Fixed Penalty Notice in the first instance. This ensures as far as possible that our approach is fair and in line with the legislation which should result in the fixed penalty being paid thereby reducing the need for costly court action and any risks of losing the action subsequently taken.



Notts council Minutes - October 2007

Enforcement Action - Discarded Cigarette Butts Councillor Cowan asked the following question of the Leader of the Council:-

• Will the Portfolio Holder for Environment and Climate Change, or the Leader in her absence, tell me how many fixed penalty notices have been issued or other enforcement action taken since 1 April this year against people discarding used cigarette butts on public streets in and around the Old Market Square; and whether there are any groups or classes of people who are effectively immune from enforcement action, and if so, why?

Councillor Collins replied as follows:-

• Thank you, Lord Mayor and can I thank Councillor Cowan for his question. Since 1 April this year 530 fixed penalty notices have been issued for discarded cigarette butts of which around 100 of these have been for offences in and around the Old Market Square.

• Since the law does not allow for fixed penalty notices to be issued to anyone under the age of 10 this group of people are “immune” although Community Protection Officers (CPOs) do have the power to confiscate cigarettes from anyone who is smoking below the legal minimum age to do so. There are no other groups that are immune from enforcement activity as far as I am aware and I would expect CPOs to treat everybody equally in this respect.

• If Councillor Cowan is concerned that this isn’t happening then I would suggest he raises any specific examples directly with Mr Errington who is the appropriate officer in this instance.

[Amethyst]

Re: Fixed Penalty notice help please

Guidance from Defra http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/...y-guidance.pdf


Page 37




The points to prove (to be addressed in full, in advance of a fixed penalty notice being issued) go beyond the basic background information that should be recorded as a matter of course with any offence, including:
a description of the offence that is alleged to have taken place;
the view of the enforcement officer that witnessed the offence;
the date;
the time;
the name and address of the offender;
the age of the offender;
a description of the offender and whether they will be recognised again; and
the weather and light conditions at the time.
By going through a set of points to prove, essentially an extended set of questions, an enforcement officer gathers the information required to prove each strand of an offence. It also effectively rules out any defence that could be used at a later date, should an alleged offender be summonsed to court for an offence they are accused of.





Litter fixed penalty notices for the wrong offences
Description of offenceMore appropriate form of actionDomestic bins put out at the wrong time.•To use a fixed penalty notice available under section 47ZA of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 for offences committed under s.46.•Small scale fly tip of a fridge and/or a few black plastic bags.•Gather evidence and pursue prosecution for the offence of illegal deposit of waste, for which a fixed penalty notice is not available.•To pursue the registered keeper of a vehicle after litter was witnessed being deposited from a passenger window.•Investigate the offence and if there is sufficient evidence to prove a case against the individual who committed the offence (a passenger), then issue a fixed penalty notice to them under s.88 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990.









Page 51
Getting the right identity
A further change brought in by the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005 is the power to require the name and address of an alleged offender. In practice this makes it an offence for a person, who an enforcement officer proposes to give a fixed penalty notice to, to fail to give their name and address when required to do so, or for them to give false or inaccurate name or address details.
This power applies to all of the relevant fixed penalty notice powers and was brought in to close a loophole where anyone offered a fixed penalty notice in the past could give false details, safe in the knowledge that they were not committing an offence.
However, the question that still arises is how does an enforcement officer know whether someone is giving them false details or not and what should they do if they suspect this to be the case?
It is

[Guest]

Re: Fixed Penalty notice help please

I also found this.

Litter

[Amethyst]

Re: Fixed Penalty notice help please

ah haaaaaaaa PAGE 54

It is not appropriate to issue a fixed penalty notice to the registered keeper of a vehicle based only on the details obtained through the DVLA’s WEES. The reason is simple, they may not have been driving the vehicle or, if the litter was seen coming from a passenger window, it is less likely that the driver would have been the person throwing the litter from the vehicle.
The only circumstances when it is going to be appropriate to issue a fixed penalty notice to someone alleged to have thrown litter from a car is when they have been properly identified as responsible for the litter, or if at some later date they admit to the offence under caution.









Appeals process
There is no obligation for an authority to offer an appeals process to someone that might want to dispute a fixed penalty notice. What is discussed here, in effect, is the possible role of a ‘non-statutory’ appeals process, should an authority decide that it would like to offer such a process.
Having issued a fixed penalty notice, there will be times when someone on the receiving end will want to question it. Any authority should welcome the challenge provided by an appeals process, as not only does it allow for the concerns of a member of the public to be heard, it also works as an assurance check on an authority’s fixed penalty notice enforcement system, to ensure that it is fit for purpose.
It can be argued that the obvious place for any challenge to a fixed penalty notice will be the magistrates’ court, however, it is considered good practice to offer an appeals process so that someone who wants to dispute a fixed penalty notice has the opportunity to do so prior to an offence appearing in the court. After all, someone challenging a fixed penalty notice may have legitimate grounds for contesting the imposition of the penalty.







What happened to innocent until proven guilty ?

[Mochamoos]

Re: Fixed Penalty notice help please

Cloned car maybe?? boyfriend said somethign similar happened to a friend he got speeding fine from place he had never even been to....

[Mochamoos]

Re: Fixed Penalty notice help please

BBC Inside Out - Car cloning

[Guest]

Re: Fixed Penalty notice help please

I would write back to the Council and tell them that he was not there and if he has allegedly been positively identified, then find out how, by whom and what evidence they have to support this.

[Paule]

Re: Fixed Penalty notice help please

This to me looks like the type of notice you get handed in person on the street.

Which the case may be that the Actual driver just gave your husbands name and address.

Then as he hasn't paid they have sent it to the address the driver gave, ie yours.

as the notice says 'Alleged Offender' and 'reason to believe', I would just write back and state that you are not the driver and can they provide proof

Obviously I cant speak fro the Notts Patrollers/offcers and their forms but GMP forms have space on the back for the description of the offender, which may prove that your husband wasnt the offender

[jet_black]

Re: Fixed Penalty notice help please

we have posted a letter pointing out that they have made a mistake and provided them with the address of the school so they can contact them if necessary. I have also requested that they give evidence to back up their allegations. I am wondering if it will be worthwhile contacting our MP about this?

[Guest]

Re: Fixed Penalty notice help please

we have posted a letter pointing out that they have made a mistake and provided them with the address of the school so they can contact them if necessary. I have also requested that they give evidence to back up their allegations. I am wondering if it will be worthwhile contacting our MP about this?

Yes.

[jet_black]

Re: Fixed Penalty notice help please

Thank you all so much for your help so far, I'll get on to Margaret Beckett tomorrow and see what happens

[Amy]

Re: Fixed Penalty notice help please

I also found this.

Litter

They really are quite rubbish at grammar aren't they!

It can take a long time to disappear naturally – for example a plastic bags takes between 10–20 years to decompose, a cigarette butts up to 2 years as does a banana skin.

[Guest]

Re: Fixed Penalty notice help please

They really are quite rubbish at grammar aren't they!

It can take a long time to disappear naturally – for example a plastic bags takes between 10–20 years to decompose, a cigarette butts up to 2 years as does a banana skin.

An inevitable consequence of the destruction of our education system. Exam results improve each year, yet this is the kind of thing we see all around us that would tend to suggest and which is vehemently denied, that results improve because the exams are getting easier.

This thread from enaid says it all Legal Beagles