I am outraged .......

[Ann]

Read this story
http://www.dailymail....tml?ito=feeds-newsxml

What is this country coming to? Do they not have anything better to do with their time? Our country is becoming a laughing stock! At least they saw sense and dropped the charge but only after all the adverse publicity methinks!

[bednobs]

i don't get a lot of time in my life to be outraged, therefore i leave it to the dm to do it on my behalf - so much more convenient

[ummmm]

It's the Mail...you're suppose to be outraged!

[Ann]

I would like to know if it really did happen though, surely it must have done or the council could sue the Daily Mail.

[THEMOTLEY1]

Ann, are you suggesting the DM publishes 'porkies' ?

[Ann]

What - moi? ;)

[THEMOTLEY1]

:o)

[B00]

I cant stop laughing at the picture of a glum looking woman holding some thread, and not the original thread oh no...it's a similar looking one! Hehehe

(sorry!)

[FredPuli43]

I like the official answer that the council was satisfied that an offence had been committted. Er, no, it hadn't been. They have a strange idea of what amounts to committing the offence and even now be sending men out to collect £75 from everyone who sheds a hair in the street. It's bad enough that they employ such a jobsworth, but to seek to defend him makes them look really mean-spirited.

[bookbinder]

What's the definition of litter/littering, anyway? Does anybody really know?

[woofgang]

reminds me of the line from Tootsie where Dustin Hoffman says "What time is the interview? OK I'll come around beforehand and enrage you"

[d9f1c7]

doesn't she know that only smokers are exempt from the littering laws?

[vulcan]

I know littering is unsightly but these councils haven't a clue have they ?
The following is from an Australian website but to think people get paid to come up with nonsense like this is unbelievable.
//Over 32 billion cigarette butts are discarded in Australia each year — if placed end to end they would extend 640,000 kilometres and circle the planet 16 times.//

[d9f1c7]

At work we have a smoking area furnished with big proper bins etc. Why are they knee deep in fag butts then? Is it just traditional for smokers to lob it on the deck regardless?

[FredPuli43]

Littering is when someone 'throws down, drops or otherwise deposits' something 'in such circumstances as to cause, contribute to or tend to lead to the defacement by litter of [the public place etc]'
One thread falling accidentally doesn't come under the first part; the words 'throws down' etc suggest a conscious act; and the proposition that one thread on a pavement amounts to causing etc the defacement of the street by litter would be nonsense..

[shoota]

Surely it's the councils responsibility to provide cotton re-cycling bins on every street?

[B00]

I'm outraged that no one else finds the picture as funny as I do, I might even sulk.

[bookbinder]

That warrants a new thread, shoota.

[craft1948]

lol @ the snipe about smokers.................in York you'd get fined for littering if you dropped the ash, let alone a cigarette.

[Hazel104]

I was with a friend that smokes but has one of those portable ashtray things for the butts. We noticed an enforcement officer watching as she finished, fair enough, but the look of disappointment on his face when she didn't drop it and put in the 'thingy' was quite funny.

[Old_Geezer]

A single strand ? Probably part of one of them there 'zero tolerance policies'. Always a dodgy route to take, no one is perfect (or that lucky).

Unsure it is adverse publicity; they couldn't afford to buy that sort of publicity to warn the public not to drop litter.