A TROWBRIDGE businessman has floated the idea that the town council should hire a private company to clamp down on people littering.

Owner of Scholars, Cllr Edward Kirk, has suggested that the town council contracts a litter enforcement firm, such as Kingdom, where people who are caught littering are fined £75. He said the proceeds would be equally split between the company and the council.

Although Cllr Kirk is not entirely in favour of this, as he feels companies like these are ‘incentivised’ to fine people, he said he thought the issue should be discussed by his fellow councillors. “This is a very heavy-handed solution and it will undoubtedly lead to complaints.

“However, the fact remains that litter is costing the council and therefore the council taxpayer significant money,” he said.

“The police are unable to allocate resources to the issue and community groups cannot keep on top of this growing menace and why should they?

“I am not saying this is the right answer, far from it, but I think it should be talked about.

“The risk element is there is a financial incentive to be quite aggressive with fining people.

“Kingdom were featured on Panorama and the footage shows they were quite heavy handed with this. Officers were filmed handing out £75 fines for pieces of dropped orange peel and poured-away coffee.

“As I said, I do not think this is something I would like to do but I think we should be more proactive than reactive and be asking the question, can we do that?”

The town council are now looking into this idea. Close to 30 councils across England are using private litter enforcement companies.