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Belfast
News: Wasting Public Money Is Not A Good
Look
Have
you ever left your girlfriend because she
spat our chewing gum? No, perhaps you've
left your partner in tears because, she
dropped litter? Oh, you're a fella, then
perhaps you've dumped your girlfriend
purely because of a litter issue?
Apparently,
given the amount of money Belfast City
Council are spending on this campaign, one
must imagine that one of our council
staff, executives or councillors, must
have lost a partner in this way.
The
Council's campaign slogan is ' Litter, Its not a good
look' and the campaign to date has seen
Belfast City Council spend a total
of £130,000.00. This figure includes media placement costs for activity booked from June 2010 to January
2011.
In
justification of this spend, Belfast City Council
explains that it spends £11 million each year cleaning litter off the streets
of Belfast and that they have invested
this £130k in an advertising spend to target litter
perpetrators, into changing their behaviour and reduce the amount of litter on our
streets.
Considering
the claim that Belfast is awash with so
much litter that the council spends
£11,000,000.00 of rates payer's money
each year, lets ask:
1.
How many offences did the council litter
wardens detect in 2009 & 2010?
From
Jan - Dec '09 1,169 Fixed Penalty Notices were issued in respect of littering.
From Jan 2010 to date a total of 1,373 Fixed Penalty Notices have been issued.
2.
How many Litter Warden does the council
employ to tackle this mountain of litter?
'There are three Litter Warden posts although there have been vacancies during the course of both 2009 and 2010. We therefore didn't have a full
compliment of three Litter Wardens over the two year period.'
Given that the matter is not serious
enough to employ the required number of
staff and that Northern Ireland is in the
grips of economic woes, is it acceptable
for Belfast City Council to 'waste'
£130,000.00 on a littering campaign. If
the council is spending £11,000,000.00
annually on litter alone, questions have
to be asked as to why they have been so
ineffective in dealing with litter. Given
the upcoming Local Council Elections in
2011, it may be time to recycle those at
Belfast City Council, who appear to just
be littering the place!
Last Updated: 1st November 2010
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