Kibkom North Cyprus Forum

£160 fine just for dropping cherry stones

It seemed a reasonable thing to do – disposing of a few cherry stones in the soil under a tree in the park.

But a retired couple reckoned without the local council’s enforcement officers – who fined them £160 for littering.

Peter Marsh, 69, and wife Gillian, 65, were left ‘terrified’ after their encounter with the ‘burly men’. Mr Marsh believed they had been picked on because they were ‘old and less likely to make a fuss’.

The couple bought the cherries from a market stall in Canterbury and then sat down on a bench to enjoy a snack. They ate around 15 cherries between them, and when they got up to leave they carefully placed the stones in the soil by a tree, which was in the middle of the circular bench they were sitting on.

As they walked off, however, the couple were approached by two enforcement officers, who said they should have put the cherry stones in a nearby bin. The officers separated the couple, took them to one side and demanded they show identification.

The couple were accused of littering. Mr and Mrs Marsh insisted that they would ‘never litter the streets’, but were taken back to the bench and shown the cherry stones.

Mr Marsh, of Deal, Kent, who had travelled to the cathedral city for a hospital appointment, said he and his wife were each issued with an £80 on-the-spot fine.

He said they were both ‘shaken’ by the incident and told their local paper: ‘We were approached by two men who were quite intimidating. We thought they were policemen.

‘They did say they were enforcement officers but didn’t explain clearly what was happening. They separated my wife and I and were very forthright in demanding identification.


‘We were scared at that point as we didn’t really know what was going on. It was terrifying. They separated us and were far too heavy-handed. We are law-abiding people.’

Mr Marsh said he and his wife supported Canterbury City Council’s stance on litter but claimed that issuing a penalty of £160 for ‘biodegradable’ cherry stones was ‘overzealous’ and that a verbal warning would have been more appropriate. ‘The way it was carried out was just disgusting,’ he said.

The council has now agreed to refund one of the £80 fines, but is satisfied the fixed penalty notices were issued correctly.

A spokesman said: ‘Litter in the city centre is a priority issue for the public and we seek to enforce fairly no matter the age or gender of the person who commits an offence.

‘We consider that everything discarded improperly on the street is litter and we cannot differentiate between an item being large or small, cigarette end or food packaging, a half-melon or cherry leftovers. In this case, there was a bin within a reasonable distance for them to use.’

The spokesman added that the officers’ approach was ‘fair and reasonable’ but added: ‘After considering their circumstances, we will cancel one of the fixed penalty notices as a goodwill gesture.’


Would it have happened in the TRNC - I think not.....

There's a job for them in the TRNC!

OK, I would have put the stones in a bin, but I think these "enforcement officers" were maybe a little OTT.

A man in our local town has been fined £700 included costs for throwing a cig stump in the street, he was issued with a fixed penalty but being arrogant saying the council don't supply ash trays in the street what was he supposed to do with it he refused to pay so he was taken to court.

The law is the law, no littering means don't leave your rubbish. If they wanted to plant cherry these they should have kept the stones and planted them in there own home. Look at the south side of Cyprus 450-500 euros fine even for a cig if they see you and they will enforce it, but it works it is lovely and clean, then look at our side the island of trash and rubbish every where in the streets, parks, and worst of all the sea. I wish we had fines here the people would think twice about leaving litter and rubbish every where.

Agreed 100%.

The problem here is privatisation! When Council services , including street cleaning, were put out to tender there had to be specifications to enable Contractors to know what to quote for and their work to be checked. I remember he Council I worked for specified anything larger than a cigarette stub was classed as litter, so I suppose these were large cherries!

This is the trouble with the modern world is every organisation is so large and hidebound there is no room for individual judgement of circumstances : something like cherry stones could cause a slipping hazard on a wet pavement, but was harmless in the circs, and it would have been more appropriate to give a caution or a nominal fine.

As the lesser of two evils I would rather live somewhere like here, rubbish and all, than in a country where "Jobsworths" can bully vulnerable people and I might be subject to a a fine which would leave me living on bread and water for over a week, because the wind blew away a piece of paper, or I threw crumbs to the birds!