Dropping butts to cost £50

Smokers will now face an on-the-spot £50 fine for dropping cigarette butts on the street under new laws which come into force today. Similar penalties will be handed out to people discarding chewing gum.

The Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act also introduces tougher fines for fly-tipping, a crackdown on graffiti and restrictions on professional dog walkers.

The legislation gives local councils greater powers to deal with burglar alarms and noisy pubs and bars.

Other measures include giving town halls the power to recover the cost from supermarkets for dealing with abandoned shopping trolleys. Parish councils will have the right to issue fixed penalty notices for fly-posting, litter, graffiti and dog offences.

For the first time chewing gum and cigarette butts are classified as litter. Fines for dropping butts and gum will be £50, rising to £75 in April

next year. It will also become an offence to drop litter on other people's property.

Fly-tipping becomes an arrestable offence for the first time, with culprits liable to a maximum £50,000 fine or five years' imprisonment.

Ben Bradshaw, the minister responsible for local environment issues, said: "The new rules will give local authorities more power to tackle environment crime and make everyone think about the environment around them.

"So I hope they will use these new powers to deter people from dropping anything, anywhere, at any time.

"Gum droppers and smokers chucking away cigarette butts can be given on-the-spot fines of £50, which will soon go up to ?75. So why risk being fined when it's so easy just to pop the butt or your gum in the bin?"