A local weekly newspaper’s campaign to catch litter louts in a Lincolnshire town proved to be a success from the off.
The Boston Standard joined forces with Boston Borough Council to launch its Litter Louts campaign.
The scheme sees CCTV images of people dropping litter published in the paper in the hope that members of the public will help identify them.
When the images were published last month readers helped identify five of the seven culprits on the same day as they were published in the paper.
The council will now issue those proven to have been making a mess of the town with a £75 fine.
Editor of the Johnston Press title, Stephen Stray said: “Our readers have helped us to track down the names and addresses of five of the seven men who were caught on CCTV in relation to six instances of littering and one instance of dog fouling in and around the town.
“This is great for the first day of the campaign, but we still need people to come forward to help corroborate the information we have received so far and help us to identify the other two people.”
This is the third time the paper has launched the campaign and they were the first newspaper to pioneer the scheme seven years ago in 2004 when it proved to be a success.
Stephen said it was aimed as acting as a deterrent to others.
He told HTFP: “We want to get the message out there. It’s one of the many things people are trying to eradicate in Boston.”
The next series of culprits is due to appear in the paper soon.
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I think this is a fine use of council taxpayers money and the resources of a campaigning newspaper. In these tough times with the country in financial and social chaos, riots in the streets, mass unemployment and dwindling council services, I am pleased that litter louts are being targeted.
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Residents highlighted to the borough council their concerns over litter in the streets and community groups asked the council to do something about it. With “dwindling” resources the ideal is for the litter not to be dropped in the first place. This operation costs the council nothing extra – its CCTV system is mionitored around the clock in any case – and combining with the Boston Standard and its readers is obviously cost effective and a good example of community involvement in something the community is concerned about. We don’t want to have to catch anyone littering the street, or failing to clean up after their dog. Better they didn’t do it in the first place, and that’s the deterrent effect we are hoping for.
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