£50 fine for smokers who drop butts

Smokers who discard cigarette butts in the streets are likely to be issued with £50 fixed penalties in a new clampdown by Mayor Ken Livingstone.

The number of enforcement officers who can issue the tickets is set to be trebled to 750 in an effort to reduce the thousands of tons of cigarette litter dumped on the capital's streets each year.

The pavement has become the last refuge of smokers who have been excluded from offices and restaurants, but even there they will find no peace.

Mr Livingstone has written to 300 companies warning them their staff who smoke outside should not throw away cigarette ends. To make it easier for to comply, 15,000 heat-resistant cigarette butt pouches are being distributed.

Although the Mayor is a well known opponent of smoking in public places, his officials insist the latest moves are inspired by a desire to see cleaner streets. They claim that 2,700 tons of cigarette waste - including packaging, cellophane, foil and matches as well as the butts - is dumped on London's pavements each year.

Mr Livingstone said: " People think their cigarette butt is fairly harmless and will not make a difference to London's litter problem but in reality, smoking litter is one of the most commonly occurring forms of litter and cigarette filters do not degrade easily.

"Smokers need to start taking more responsibility for their litter."

Under the 1990 Environmental Protection Act, council enforcement officers have the power to issue £50 fixed penalty notices for littering. The notices are similar to parking tickets and offenders have the option to pay the penalty within a few weeks or go to court.

Mr Livingstone's staff have looked closely at Ireland, where there is said to have been 98 per cent compliance with their recently introduced public smoking ban which was backed by £2,000 fines.

Simon Clark, director of Forest, the pro-smoking group, said the problem of smoking litter had been made worse by most firms banning smoking. "No one is in favour of litter but it is the inevitable consequence of banning smoking indoors," he said.

A total ban on smoking in public would require national legislation and the Government has hinted it will step back from such a measure. A White Paper on public smoking will be released next month which is expected to suggest only a selective ban that would exclude pubs and clubs.

A recent poll showed that two thirds of Londoners back restrictions on smoking in restaurants, 74 per cent were in favour of a ban in offices and 68 per cent in shopping centres.