On-the-spot fines

Public spaces are increasingly policed by unaccountable officials bearing open-ended powers. On-the-spot fines mean that police and other officials can punish people for a series of offences ‘on-the-spot’, without legal checks and balances. Criminal offences that would have been tried in court are now often dealt with like a parking ticket.

The result has been arbitrary punishments for perfectly innocent activities. A woman was fined for feeding the ducks, as was a man who dropped a £10 note. One Women’s Institute group received threats of fines for putting up a poster and handing out leaflets, while others have been fined for putting up lost cat posters.

See our report: Pavement Injustice: the Rise of On-the-spot fines

On-the-spot fines

£500 fine when letter blew out of bin

After the case of a man fined £500 for fly tipping when an envelope blew out of his bin, a similar thing has happened to a lady in Enfield. This case is even worse, however, since the council seems to be partly at fault for the incident. The lady’s bin had been broken – along with her neighbours’ bins – when a car crashed into the front garden in December, and the council failed to replace the bins for several months. In April, a letter that she had placed in her bin was found on the ground by enforcement agents, and she…

On-the-spot fines

Letter to Welwyn Hatfield Council re. corrupt ‘fly tipping’ penalties

Welwyn Hatfield Council’s private enforcement contract has led to a number of unfair penalties, including a man fined £500 for ‘fly tipping’ when an envelope blew out of his bin. This is an extract from the letter we sent to the council’s executive member for the environment. I’m writing to express my extreme concerns about cases related to your employment of District Enforcement. As I’m sure you will be aware, these include a man fined for ‘fly tipping’ when an envelope blew out of his bin, and people fined when their envelopes miraculously ended up on the floor of other communal bin…

On-the-spot fines • Policy response

Now byelaws will become ‘busybody’ powers too

The English Devolution White Paper proposes to allow local councils to bring through byelaws without first seeking consent from the Secretary of State. It also proposes to allow councils to punish byelaw infractions by on-the-spot fine. The Manifesto Club response is as follows: “There are important checks that currently prevent unreasonable or overly restrictive byelaws. The requirement that the byelaws be affirmed by central government means that the relevant government department can check that they are ‘proportionate and reasonable‘, as required by the legislation. Government also supplies template byelaws, which are time-tested and fit with these specifications. A Home Office Circular from…

On-the-spot fines • PSPOs

Cyclist fined by ‘cowboy’ warden in Colchester

A resident of Colchester was fined by ‘cowboy’ private enforcement officers for cycling in Colchester town centre. Read his testimony below: I was handed a PSPO ticket (under Section 59 of the Anti-Social Behavior, Crime and Policing Act 2014) for cycling up West Stockwell Street on 3rd June 2024, and then onto the high street. I had given way to the pedestrians during joining the high street, but did not dismount. I then crossed the road to the cycle rack opposite West Stockwell street, and went to lock my bike to the rack. I was then stopped and spoken to as I…

On-the-spot fines • PSPOs

Council forced to scrap ‘cowboy’ cycling fines

Colchester Council has been forced to scrap fines issued to cyclists under its Public Spaces Protection Order, after people were wrongfully fined for actions including cycling on shared-use paths, cycling in cycling areas, and cycling slowly on a pavement to avoid a dangerous roundabout. Colchester’s PSPO prohibits – Using a skateboard, bicycle, scooter, skates, or any other self-propelled wheeled vehicle, including electric scooters in such a manner as to cause or is likely to cause intimidation, harassment, alarm, distress, nuisance, or annoyance to any person. As we noted in our PSPOs report last year, there is a growing trend for councils to…

On-the-spot fines

Smokers fined for putting cigarette down for a moment

The campaign group North Wales Against Kingdom Security is helping two smokers who were fined for putting lit cigarettes on the ground for a moment. In one case, a bus driver got off the coach and lit a cigarette outside the door. An elderly gentleman wanted to come down the stairs, so the bus driver put his cigarette on the floor, and helped the man off. He then picked the cigarette and finished it but an operative leapt in and issued him a fixed penalty notice in the meantime. In another case, a lady (who is is disabled and uses a mobility…

On-the-spot fines

£400 fines for putting rubbish in the bin

Now Rother Council has joined Camden Council in fining members of the public for putting their rubbish in the bin. A woman in Battle, East Sussex, picked up waste that had been strewn over a council carpark after seagulls ripped open bin bags. Because she put the rubbish in the carpark bins, she was sent a £400 pound fine for ‘fly tipping’. Like Camden, Rother Council subcontracts enforcement to a private company, who is paid per fine (in this case, the company is National Enforcement Solutions). At worst, the lady made a well-intentioned mistake of putting rubbish in the nearby bins. By…