PEOPLE leaving abandoned vehicles, dropping litter and spraying graffiti in Middlewich will be the subject of on-the-spot fines from Monday.
On New Year's Day, Congleton Borough Council will adopt powers outlined in the Clean Neighbourhoods Act 2005, which will allow wardens to issue fixed penalty notices for a range of offences.
They include abandoning vehicles on the highway (a £200 fine), graffiti (£75), littering (£75), fly posting (£75) and selling more than one vehicle on the road (£100).
Community safety manager Tony Potts said: 'This allows us to be more effective and quicker to deal with nuisance and vandalism in Middlewich. It means that we no longer have to go through very time-consuming processes when we see graffiti or abandoned vehicles.
'Like most of the borough, Middlewich doesn't have a huge problem with these issues, so we're not expecting to be issuing these notices a lot. But we will do so when it is possible and necessary. It means we can clamp down on these problems even faster than before.'
PCSO Roger Need of Middlewich police said: 'These sorts of incidents affect people's lives and they are the sort of thing that I have to deal with on a regular basis. I agree that the levels you are looking at here are not the same as those in a big city but it does happen, so anything like this is a good thing.'
