Blitz on leaflet litter louts
SHEFFIELD city centre is being swamped by hundreds of flyers which are being dumped on the streets every single day.
Up to a thousand leaflets - many advertising pubs and clubs - are thrown on city centre streets.
In one week 20,000 flyers can end up on the pavement and a staggering one million can be dumped in a year.
The unwanted adverts are thrust at passers-by but end up scattered on the pavement.
In just one day, 1,325 leaflets were found in the city centre with more than 350 on Eyre Street, 290 on Arundel Street and 200 each on West Street and Leadmill Road.
Another day saw 500 flyers billowing around Arundel Street, with another 200 on Leadmill Road, 150 on West Street and a full bag of leaflets on Matilda Street.
Most leaflets are found near pubs and clubs and when council officers checked the streets on a day when the pubs were closed, they found just 14 leaflets.
The council will now make it illegal to distribute flyers without permission on key streets such as Fargate, The Moor, Barker's Pool, Tudor Square, Chapel Walk, West Street, Division Street and Arundel Street.
Companies will have to pay a fee to get permission to leaflet or face a 75 fine.
Political parties, religious organisations and charities will be exempt.
Sheffield Council assistant chief executive Liz Bashforth said: "The city centre management team conducted one daytime survey of a number of streets in the heart of the city.
"It found in one week alone, 16 different organisations were employing over 90 individuals who had been instructed to distribute over 20,000 leaflets - equivalent to over one million a year.
"The situation is much worse following night time activities, particularly weekends which produce even greater litter.
"It's visually unacceptable and makes a very unwelcoming street scene as many of the leaflets are simply discarded on the ground.
"This leads to daily practical problems of clearing litter so the city centre is clean enough to open for business the following morning."
The council says residents are just as fed up. Ms Bashforth added: "The city centre team receives at least one public complaint every single day by either letter or telephone, specifically about the littering problem caused by free literature or the aggressive issuing of it.
"People simply want to be left alone and not pestered while going about their business."
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Friday 25 May 2012
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