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<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=1 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD><SPAN class=TopStory>Tickets for littering</SPAN>
<SPAN class=Subheadline>NSWMA says system will start next February</SPAN></TD></TR><TR><TD>Patrick Foster, Observer writer
Thursday, November 30, 2006
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<P class=StoryText align=justify>The National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA), in what it promises will be a drive to crack down hard on littering, says it will start issuing 'garbage tickets' to persons caught littering public areas.<P class=StoryText align=justify>According to Deryke Smith, acting executive director of the NSMWA, the tickets, which will come into effect in February 2007, will range from a low of $2,000 to $10,000, depending on the offence.<P class=StoryText align=justify>A lunch box tossed out of a car window, for example, will attract a $2,000 fine. So too will flicking a cigarette butt onto the street.<P class=StoryText align=justify>"When one is issued with a ticket, the fine should be paid at a prescribed location," Smith told the Observer yesterday. "After 21 days, if the fine is not paid, the person receiving the ticket will be required to go to Court."<P class=StoryText align=justify>Sections 46 to 48 of the National Solid Waste Management Act empower the Authority to issue fixed penalty notices (tickets), and the police as well as any authorised agent of the NSWMA will be able to issue the tickets.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Other sections of the Act allow for perpetrators to be fined up to $1 million or be imprisoned for a period not exceeding nine months.<P class=StoryText align=justify>"Those are for major offences," Smith said, such as dumping truck loads of waste onto open lots or into gullies.
Smith said that the NSWMA ticket will be similar in appearance to the traffic ticket. However, the payment of fines will not be made at a Government collectorate but rather at a private bill collection agency.<P class=StoryText align=justify>"We are just discussing it and we are trying to get a move on it," Smith said of the bill collection procedure, adding that the NSWMA had to make its own arrangements to collect the fines.<P class=StoryText align=justify>"We will put out a tender for the services of a collection agency. There has to be some degree of transparency in the process," Smith said.<P class=StoryText align=justify>The NSWMA will also come down heavy on the display of posters, especially in the capital city, Smith told the Observer.
"We will be dealing with the display of posters on light poles and walls where anyone found putting up a poster without permission would be fined $3,000," he said.<P class=StoryText align=justify>The promoters of the events being advertised, however, will receive a stiffer fine of $10,000, the NSWMA boss said.
The NSWMA explained that the Kingston & St Andrew Corporation (KSAC) makes allowances for the placement of posters in the capital.<P class=StoryText align=justify>"When you apply to the KSAC, they will tell you where posters may be displayed, and once permission is given we will get that information," Smith said. He added that the posters should be removed after a prescribed date and if they remain, that also will attract a fine.<P class=StoryText align=justify>- fosterp@jamaicaobserver.com
<SPAN class=Subheadline>NSWMA says system will start next February</SPAN></TD></TR><TR><TD>Patrick Foster, Observer writer
Thursday, November 30, 2006
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<P class=StoryText align=justify>The National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA), in what it promises will be a drive to crack down hard on littering, says it will start issuing 'garbage tickets' to persons caught littering public areas.<P class=StoryText align=justify>According to Deryke Smith, acting executive director of the NSMWA, the tickets, which will come into effect in February 2007, will range from a low of $2,000 to $10,000, depending on the offence.<P class=StoryText align=justify>A lunch box tossed out of a car window, for example, will attract a $2,000 fine. So too will flicking a cigarette butt onto the street.<P class=StoryText align=justify>"When one is issued with a ticket, the fine should be paid at a prescribed location," Smith told the Observer yesterday. "After 21 days, if the fine is not paid, the person receiving the ticket will be required to go to Court."<P class=StoryText align=justify>Sections 46 to 48 of the National Solid Waste Management Act empower the Authority to issue fixed penalty notices (tickets), and the police as well as any authorised agent of the NSWMA will be able to issue the tickets.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Other sections of the Act allow for perpetrators to be fined up to $1 million or be imprisoned for a period not exceeding nine months.<P class=StoryText align=justify>"Those are for major offences," Smith said, such as dumping truck loads of waste onto open lots or into gullies.
Smith said that the NSWMA ticket will be similar in appearance to the traffic ticket. However, the payment of fines will not be made at a Government collectorate but rather at a private bill collection agency.<P class=StoryText align=justify>"We are just discussing it and we are trying to get a move on it," Smith said of the bill collection procedure, adding that the NSWMA had to make its own arrangements to collect the fines.<P class=StoryText align=justify>"We will put out a tender for the services of a collection agency. There has to be some degree of transparency in the process," Smith said.<P class=StoryText align=justify>The NSWMA will also come down heavy on the display of posters, especially in the capital city, Smith told the Observer.
"We will be dealing with the display of posters on light poles and walls where anyone found putting up a poster without permission would be fined $3,000," he said.<P class=StoryText align=justify>The promoters of the events being advertised, however, will receive a stiffer fine of $10,000, the NSWMA boss said.
The NSWMA explained that the Kingston & St Andrew Corporation (KSAC) makes allowances for the placement of posters in the capital.<P class=StoryText align=justify>"When you apply to the KSAC, they will tell you where posters may be displayed, and once permission is given we will get that information," Smith said. He added that the posters should be removed after a prescribed date and if they remain, that also will attract a fine.<P class=StoryText align=justify>- fosterp@jamaicaobserver.com