Councils were today accused of being ‘trigger-happy’ after littering fines rocketed 160-fold in parts of the country.
Data obtained by the Daily Mail reveal Colchester City Council issued 146.8 fixed penalty notices (FPNs) each month last year, on average.
The equivalent figure was just 0.9 in 2022, according to our freedom of information (FOI) request.
Litter wardens have been caught patrolling private car parks of McDonald’s, Tesco and Sainsbury’s under the council’s crackdown, sparking locals to claim that it’s a money-grabbing play.
Our analysis follows several reports of overzealousness from enforcement officers patrolling busy streets.
Last October, Burcu Yesilyurt was ‘chased’ down Richmond’s high street after being caught pouring the remnants of her coffee into a drain. Ms Yesilyurt was fined £150, although Richmond-upon-Thames Council later rescinded it in a humiliating U-turn.
That same council doled out an average of 117.8 littering fines a month last year – up from 33.2 per month in 2022, according to our FOI of all 382 councils in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Ms Yesilyurt’s FPN was not included, however. She was stung under Section 33 of the Environmental Protection Act, which outlaws a person ‘depositing controlled waste, or knowingly cause or knowingly permit controlled waste to be deposited’.
Benjamin Elks, grassroots development manager at the TaxPayers’ Alliance told the Daily Mail: ‘Everybody wants clean streets, but these figures suggest some authorities are becoming far too trigger-happy.
‘When litter wardens are patrolling supermarket car parks and chasing people down high streets, it risks looking less like environmental protection and more like revenue-raising.
‘At a time when councils say they are strapped for cash, local taxpayers will rightly ask why so much effort is going into nanny-state fines rather than focusing on common-sense enforcement.’
Some councils have resorted to slapping residents with fly-tipping charges, including Labour-run Reading, who fined an 83-year old for leaving a cardboard box next to a recycling bin.
Burcu Yesilyurt (pictured) was slapped with a £150 fine by council officers after pouring the remnants of her coffee down the drain
Carole Wright, 83, from Reading, has been hit with a fine and threatened with a conviction after allegedly fly-tipping one cardboard box
Carole Wright was threatened with a criminal conviction if she refused to pay a £600 fine.
Meanwhile, Natasha Sheldon Lane was in October threatened with fly-tipping charges after being caught dumping a plastic mailing bag inside a public bin. Wardens rifling through the bin found the bag with her address on. Her case was later dropped.
Our audit looked only at littering, which falls under breaking section 87 and 88 of the Environmental Protection Act (1990). Rules state a person can be fined if they drop, throw, deposit or leave anything so as to cause defacement in any land open to the air.
Litter includes all smoking, drinking and food related waste including cigarette butts and chewing gum and even extends to spitting.
In terms of the biggest increase in littering fines, Buckinghamshire (from 0.1 a month in 2022 to 8.8 last year) and Gwynedd in Wales (from 0.1 per month to 3.6) ranked behind Colchester City Council.
Rounding out the top five, Central Bedfordshire leapt from 0.3 to 11.8 on average and Guildford rose from 0.1 to 1.5 on average.
The timeframe for each council captures the entirety of 2022. However, because of how they responded to our FOI, the equivalent figures for last year vary. Some gave data up until September 2025, others ran until March.
Enforcing the penalties are an increasingly large army of council enforcers. Over the same timeframe, Colchester’s headcount has soared nearly 20 per cent.
Roy Marsh, 86, was out walking on a windy day when the leaf blew into his mouth
Buckinghamshire, too, upped their average headcounts, from five patrol officers in 2022 to nine and an additional three anti-social behaviour enforcers in 2025.
At the end of last year, 86-year-old Roy Marsh, of Skegness, Lincolnshire, was stung with a £250 bill after council enforcement officers deemed he had committed a section 88 offence by spitting out a leaf that had blown into his mouth.
Mr Marsh’s daughter said after the incident that enforcement officers were ‘unreasonably harassing and terrorising older people’.
East Lindsey Council, the local authority for Skegness, recorded a 0.08 per cent fall in average FPN handouts over the most recent 12 month period, compared to 2022.
FPNs can be issued by street patrolling enforcement officers employed either by the council or by a third party.
The amount that you pay for the fine depends on where you are in the council, with different boroughs and cities charging different amounts.
In Lambeth, South London for example, the notice dictates that a £400 fine must be paid directly to the council in which the offense took place – this can be reduced to £250 if paid within 14 days. Elsewhere the fine can be just £150.
There are no formal grounds for appeal if you’re issued with a fixed penalty notice, but appeals can be launched through a court process, although you could end up being charged with a criminal offence if you lose.
Many councils do not hold data for FPNs as the enforcement and management of antisocial behaviour orders is outsourced to private contractors.
Despite some seeing huge increases, 83 councils recorded a fall in the amount of fixed penalty notices handed out.
A spokesperson for the Local Government Association, the membership organisation for councils, told the Daily Mail: ‘Litter blights our streets, parks and beaches and costs millions of pounds to clear up every year.
‘The vast majority of our local residents are able to clean up after themselves – it is not fair to them if we do not take action against those who think it is ok to soil the environment in which people live, play and do business.
‘Councils have legal duties to keep public spaces clean and safe.
‘Each council understands the best way to tackle litter in their communities at minimum cost to council tax payers, and responding proportionately to the offence whilst being robust enough to tackle abuse of the local environment.’
WHAT THE COUNCILS SAID:
A spokesperson for Basingstoke Council said: ‘Since 2022, numbers of fixed penalty notices for littering and failure to comply with a public spaces protection order have remained relatively low.
‘However, the modest increases more recently are the result of dedicated campaigns focusing on littering and dog fouling, which were in direct response to residents’ concerns about the impact these types of issues have on communities.
‘Our community safety patrol officers target hotspots and work on engagement and education with residents and visitors to the borough and encourage residents to report issues which have the greatest impact on their quality of life.’
Ade Osibogun, Buckinghamshire Council’s Cabinet Member for Environment, Climate Change & Waste, said:
‘Buckinghamshire Council makes no apology for taking a firm stance against littering. Our residents consistently tell us they want cleaner streets and public spaces, and enforcing against those who choose to drop litter is an important part of achieving that.
‘Enforcement against littering also supports the delivery of our corporate priorities, helping us to protect our environment and maintain high‑quality public spaces for everyone.
‘We only issue a Fixed Penalty Notice (FPN) where an offence has been committed, and our officers follow clear guidance and procedures. Most people dispose of their waste responsibly, and they have nothing to fear from enforcement.
‘But for the small minority who continue to litter, we will take action — it’s about protecting our environment, reducing clean‑up costs for taxpayers and deterring behaviour that blights our towns, villages and countryside.’
Portsmouth City Council spokesperson Dave Ashmore said: ‘We remain focused on keeping our city safe, clean and tidy. Fixed Penalty Notices are just one tool, and we only use them where necessary to tackle behaviours that have a real impact on our communities.
‘Alongside on the ground patrols, we use CCTV to capture clear evidence of environmental offences, ensuring enforcement is fair, proportionate and based on facts. Our priority is always education first, but enforcement is important where issues affect residents.’
A Merton spokesperson said: ‘We’d prefer not to have to issue any Fixed Penalty Notices, but they’re a necessary tool to discourage litter, fly tipping, illegal parking and more.’
Glyn Jones, City of Doncaster Council spokesperson, said: ‘In Doncaster we do not tolerate littering of any kind and will take action against those who spoil our environment for others.
‘If you visit Doncaster, we want you to enjoy everything our vibrant city has to offer, and so thank those who do take pride in their local environment, put their litter in the bin and help us keep their neighbourhoods clean and tidy.’
A Colchester City Council spokesperson said: ‘Keeping Colchester clean and safe is a shared responsibility, and we remain grateful to the many residents who support this work every day. Our enforcement activity reflects our commitment to tackling littering and environmental offences wherever they occur, and to addressing the ongoing challenges that affect the quality of our streets and public spaces.
‘We use a combination of education, visibility and enforcement to encourage positive behaviour, and enforcement officers continue to take action whenever offences are observed.
‘Dog fouling, in particular, remains one of the most difficult issues to enforce, and uniformed patrols often act as a deterrent. We rely on residents to report recurring problems through our website so we can target our resources effectively.
‘We will continue working closely with the community to promote responsible behaviour and to ensure Colchester remains a cleaner, greener place for everyone.’