A Co Down councillor has slated his Council’s “poor performance” on litter fines, saying the neighbouring local authority issues four times as many in a month as “we do in a year”.
Newry, Mourne and Down District Council now says it will be “prioritising” the concerns on dog fouling and fly-tipping.
A report on the council’s performance (2024-25) was presented to the strategy, policy and resources committee this week showing the local authority enforced 31 fixed penalty notices with initial fines set at £80.
Independent Councillor Cadogan Enright asked: ”Is there any explanation to accompany this document with?
“There are several areas where we’ve done well, but there are also areas where we have done particularly badly.
“In the cleansing area, I know for the last 10 years we’ve been pointing out that our annual number of fixed penalties notices is below what half the councils in Northern Ireland do in a single month.
“If you look at ABC (Armagh, Banbridge and Craigavon) for instance, they would have in a single month something like four times what we do in a year.
“It is a poor performance and we’ve had a number of quite big meetings on what we will do to perform better on that.”
Out of the 31 penalties last year at NMDDC, there were 26 paid. A refusal to pay can lead to court proceedings with a top fine of £2,500.
The most recent figures for ABC (2024-25) show the council made a total of 190 fixed penalty notices with the initial fine set at £120.
The former Alliance councillor also raised concerns on the lack of progress on Electric Vehicle (EV) charging points in the district.
He added: “It really is painful after all these years to be sitting here, that we still don’t have a financial target for gaining the benefits of the green economy.
“Even if we had an explanation as to why we are in a single year getting less than what most councils get in terms of fixed penalties in a month.”
A council officer responded: “This would be a matter for a different department, but I would say that these matters are addressed and prioritised within the 2025-26 business plan with actions and targets.”
