By Margaret Crosby

Last updated 11:59, Thursday, 14 August 2008

A PENSIONER from Scotland on a visit to Whitehaven last week went home angry and upset with an £80 fine for dropping a cigarette end on King Street.

cigarette ends

Mrs E Cremin, 65, of Greenlaw, Duns denies she was littering and says she had merely put the cigarette on the ground to stamp it out before putting it in the bin. But “street police’’ pounced on her and issued an £80 fixed penalty.

She has now contacted Copeland Council to lodge an appeal against the fine and has also written to MP Jamie Reed.

But it seems Mrs Cremin was not alone. In an apparent blitz on cigarette end droppers, 10 people were caught in a two-day blitz last Wednesday and Thursday as men from the council’s enforcement team swept through town.

The visitor from Scotland declared: “I am not a person who throws litter on the street. I am a 65-year-old woman and I cannot afford to pay £80.’’

She had been sitting smoking on a bench in King Street while her grandchildren were in Woolworths. “I put my cigarette on the ground and stood on it, and as I was picking it up to put in the bin I was approached by two men who told me they were giving me a fixed penalty for dropping my cigarette on the ground because this was a littering offence.

“I explained I was just putting it out so I didn’t set the bin on fire. He told me I should have just put it in the bin and if it caught fire then that was not an offence, which I cannot believe and I don’t think the fire officers or police would agree.

“I didn’t do anything wrong and if the men had waited one second they would have seen me put the cigarette in the bin.’’

As a visitor to town Mrs Cremin pointed out there were no notices to explain this law. But a council spokeswoman said no one would be fined unless they had clearly discarded litter and walked away.

“People should be clear that throwing down a cigarette butt is littering and no different from dropping a crisp packet or sweet wrapper.

“The council will always do its best to stop littering in Whitehaven and the rest of the borough. It is a growing problem and it makes our towns look unattractive and dirty. We do what we can to give visitors and residents a pleasant environment.

“Before we issued any fines we did lots of educational work in the community explaining why we don’t want our streets filling up with litter and that cigarette butts are in fact litter.

“There isn’t a sign on each building saying don’t litter, but we would expect most people to realise they shouldn’t.”

Town centre businesswoman Carla Brown said: “I heard that several people had been fined in what appeared to be a purge by enforcement officers that day.

“I spoke to a woman who had been done and felt sorry for her – they could have given her a warning. It seems a bit unfair, especially when you see the amount of rubbish left lying about on the street after the market. If they were consistent it wouldn’t be so bad.’’