| Dog-free zones, fines of up to £500
for noisy pubs and designated areas where handing out advertising
literature is banned are among a planned raft of new by-laws
to equip Ulster’s councils to tackle anti-social behaviour.
Stormont’s environment committee heard of plans to give
councils powers to ban dogs from certain areas and to restrict
the number of dogs that people can walk at any one time. Pubs
that pose a noise nuisance could be fined up to £500, while
noisy domestic offenders could be fined up to £100.
The Clean Neighbourhoods Bill is aimed at cutting out much
of the bureaucracy that hampers council attempts to tackle
anti-social behaviour and littering, DOE officials told the
committee.
Councils will also be able to plough the money raised by
the fines back into measures to tackle the problems that reduce
people’s quality of life.
DOE official Denis McMahon said - “There are a range of
aspects to the proposed bill which include everything from
litter to vehicles dumped at the side of the road, to graffiti
and fly posting and nuisance. We’re trying to streamline a
lot of the processes so that councils can more quickly get
the person responsible and get the cost out of them.”
His colleague Robert Gray said the new Bill would allow
councils to set their own levels of fixed penalties for offences.
“We’re trying to make the legislation stronger to enable district
councils to deal with the problems of fly posting. We will
create by-laws that councils can choose to adopt in reference
to dog fouling, the number of dogs you can walk and banning
dogs from certain areas in the council area.”
New laws would allow councils to tow abandoned cars away
immediately. Currently, council workers must attach a sticker
and wait for a number of days, often leaving the vehicles
vulnerable to arson attack.
Councils will also have the power to designate areas so
that only certain companies can distribute leaflets - this
would include leaflets tucked under windscreen wipers in car
parks.
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