Smokers slapped with massive fines for littering have had their tickets overturned after the council admitted that the planters could be mistaken for ashtrays.
The soil filled containers, which were filled cigarette butts, coffee cups and prawn shells from the pop-up market when we visited, were installed in Canterbury as part of a £1 million project to transform the high street.
The initiative had seen a number of new benches put in place, including several with planters attached to them but only one had any foliage, the rest were riddled with litter.
It has now been revealed that hundreds of pounds worth of fixed penalty notices had been issued to those caught ditching their cigarettes, but locals say that is no surprise.
Smokers slapped with massive fines for littering have had their tickets overturned after the council admitted that the planters could be mistaken for ashtrays
The initiative had seen a number of new benches put in place, including several with planters attached to them but only one had any foliage, the rest were riddled with litter
Simon Newman, 61, who was visiting to check out the food markets said: ‘It looks like an ashtray.
‘Normally they haven’t got all these stalls up so I thought I would come and take a look before I get on my bus.’
Responding to the recent fines that were issued by the council, he said: ‘I do think it’s fair that they got fined, but it is confusing.’
He spends some time on the high street, but when asked if it looked like a Green high street, he said: ‘No not particularly, no.
‘I wouldn’t want to eat sitting on this bench.’
April Weyman, 61, said: ‘I would have said, looking at that, it’s a place to put your cigarettes out.
‘Ideally I would say it should be a plant pot with a plant in it.
‘But, obviously the council haven’t put plants in there so people are just using it to put out their cigarette butts.’
When asked what she would have done if landed with a littering fine, she said: ‘I would have fought that.’
‘The fact that everyone else has done it, it is just a known thing you do, so unless the council are prepared to clear it out and make it not look like a place to put out your cigarette butts I don’t think there’s a lot else they can do.
She added: ‘Yes it’s nice to sit down, but it’s not nice to sit down to have a coffee and something to eat with that next to you.
‘So, it would have been better just to have a bench.’
She also does not think the cost of the high street is justified either, she said: ‘I know we have invested some money to try and tidy up our high street and area, but they haven’t spent nearly as much money as that.
‘Maybe about £300,000.’
Simon Newman, 61, who was visiting to check out the food markets agreed: ‘It looks like an ashtray’
April Weyman, 61, said: ‘I would have said, looking at that, it’s a place to put your cigarettes out’
The soil filled containers, which were filled cigarette butts, coffee cups and prawn shells from the pop-up market when we visited, were installed in Canterbury as part of a £1 million project to transform the high street
Jemma French, 32, does not think there is any excuse to use the pots as bins, she said: ‘They should pay, it’s littering’
Jemma French, 32, does not think there is any excuse to use the pots as bins, she said: ‘They should pay, it’s littering.
‘Even if you take away the fact it’s supposed to be a plant pot not a bin, it’s clearly not a bin, therefore it’s littering, and everyone knows you get fines for littering, so they should pay.’
She added: ‘It is such an easy fix, just put some plants in there.
‘Or just take them away and put in a bigger bench.’
Kontiantyn Chuvatov, 43, who was smoking a cigarette on the bench next to the plant pot said: ‘I told my friend don’t put your cigarette in there.
‘It looks like an ashtray but because of the soil, I understood it’s not for cigarettes.
‘A lot of tourists come here, and it is good looking but I think it would be better if there were flowers or something – it would be much better.
‘Because it really looks an ashtray.
‘All they need to do is put some flowers, they have the soil.’
About the fines, he added: ‘I think it’s fair, you should have a sign that says ‘one cigarette, £200′ that would be it.’
