Council continues enviro-crime crackdown
Dog poo and an empty cardboard box cost two Harlow women hefty
fines after they appeared in court recently for ignoring Fixed
Penalty Notices.
Sarah Gammer of The Rundells was originally
issued with a £50 Fixed Penalty Notice for dog fouling, but ignored
the notice and ended up having to pay a £50 fine plus a £15
surcharge and £100 court costs.
The offence occurred when Miss Gammer allowed
her pet, a brown Staffordshire Terrier type dog, to roam around the
streets on its own.
The dog caught the attention of Harlow
Council’s Clean Neighbourhoods Enforcement Officer, who watched it
foul the grass verge and then followed the animal back to Miss
Gammer’s home in The Rundells.
Miss Gammer admitted the dog was hers and she
was issued with a Fixed Penalty Notice, which she repeatedly
ignored before being summonsed to appear at Harlow Magistrates.
The empty cardboard box cost its owner, Karen
Willis, £65 when she appeared in Court charged with littering.
Miss Willis, of Carters Mead, Harlow dumped
the box near her home and later claimed that other people left
rubbish in the area and that there were no signs informing people
that rubbish should not be left in the vicinity.
Paul Anderson, Harlow Council’s Community
Safety Officer said: “The box could easily have been broken up and
collected for free by our recycling team and the dog owner could
have taken her pet for a quick walk and cleaned up after it.
“These two simple acts could have saved the
women in question a lot of money and our enforcement team a lot of
time, but they chose not to follow the rules and then ignore their
Fixed Penalty Notices.
“Just because there aren’t signs on every
street corner saying you can’t dump rubbish – or indeed allow your
dog to foul the pavement – doesn’t mean you can treat a residential
area like a refuse tip.
“These cases are further evidence that Harlow Council will crack
down hard on environmental crimes and prosecute offenders to help
make Harlow a better place for all of us.”