BOY FINED FOR DROPPING CHIPS AFTER GULL ATTACK

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BOY FINED FOR DROPPING CHIPS AFTER GULL ATTACK

Friday March 19,2010

By Rod Mills, Chief Reporter

A COUNCIL'S litter snoops were condemned yesterday after an autistic schoolboy

was fined £50 for dropping a bag of chips when a seagull swooped in to attack

him.

, 12, had just bought his lunch and was standing at his school gates

when the aggressive bird flew down to steal a chip.

He dropped the bag in fright, but was spotted by a plain-clothes litter

enforcement officer who issued the £50 fine.

The Glasgow City Council official ignored the tearful schoolboy's attempts to

explain his actions.

Now the youngster, who recently received a good behaviour award from teachers,

faces the possibility of being referred to the Children's Panel after furious

mum , 43, refused to pay up.

Mrs , a catering manager at Knightswood Secondary, where her son is a

first-year pupil, yesterday attacked the warden's actions.

She said: " My son is not a rule breaker. He knows the importance of not dropping

litter, but it was a split-second reaction.

" He immediately apologised to the council officer. "

Campaign group Big Brother Watch condemned the move and offered to take up the

mother's legal battle.

Deane, its director, said: " This could only happen in a target-driven,

bureaucratic culture of overpowered jobsworths like ours today.

" The council has acted with no common sense or human feeling and should be

ashamed.

" It should drop the fine and apologise and the petty warden who issued the fixed

penalty notice should be fired. "

Last year Big Brother Watch gave legal advice to , 26, from

Oldbury, West Midlands, who was fined £75 by a council worker for feeding ducks

with her 17-month-old son Harry. She forced the council to back down after an

outcry over the petty fine.

Glasgow City Council, which has increased plain-clothes patrols outside the

school, began enforcing littering fixed penalty notices for under-16s in 2008 as

part of a £5million initiative to clean up the city.

It has issued 244 fixed penalty notices to young people between the age of 12

and 16 since February 2008, when the scheme began.

Councils have the right to impose fixed penalty notices on anyone over eight

years old, the age of criminal responsibility.

Anyone issued with the ticket can pay the fine or take part in a clean-up event.

But if neither of these options are taken up the child may appear before a

Children's Panel.

To date, no youngsters under the age of 16 have been referred for littering.

Last night a spokesman for Glasgow City Council said it had not received an

appeal against the ticket.

But he added: " If a parent feels that their child has been incorrectly

identified as having committed an offence, they have the opportunity to contact

the campaign to discuss their concerns. "