Waltham Forest Council backtracks after issuing a fixed penalty notice for a 'missing cat' poster
4:31pm Monday 8th February 2010 in
THE council has U-turned after a resident complained about being issued a fixed-penalty notice for putting up a missing cat poster.
After Lynda Dyson, of Avon Road, Walthamstow, was issued with a £75 notice last week for putting up a poster about her missing cat, Fluffy, the Guardian has learned that she will not have to pay the fine.
A Waltham Forest Council spokesman said: "This fixed penalty notice was cancelled as soon as we realised it had been issued in error.
"In this case a mistake was made and we would like to apologise unreservedly to Ms Dyson for any offence or alarm that was caused."
Ms Dyson said: “I am really happy that the council has seen sense because it is a rational response, so I am really pleased.”
The council, which is running a campaign to clamp down on environmental crime, issued the fix-penalty notice to Ms Dyson under the Anti-Social Behaviour Act for fly-posting.
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Comments(27)
Morris Hickey
says...
6:11pm Mon 8 Feb 10
Helen, Walthamstow
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6:54pm Mon 8 Feb 10
Some councillor or council officer has seen the response of website readers and backtracked rapidly before the local authority is made to look even more foolish than it already is.
And, newyear, I saw these posters myself on lampposts (tied on with string) and in shop windows. I don't think they were up more than a week or so, a fortnight at most. It's the sort of thing you see all over the borough. Why this resident was picked on I don't know.
Helen, Walthamstow
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6:58pm Mon 8 Feb 10
The cat was lost - and found - in the Avon Road neighbourhood. The only way to reach people in the area quickly was to put up the posters. It worked.
jrp
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7:03pm Mon 8 Feb 10
Walthamster
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7:49pm Mon 8 Feb 10
Helen, Walthamstow wrote:I think it was because the owner had put her phone number and/or address. Just the sort of person our mighty council would pick on -- honest, doing no harm and an easy target.
Mistake, my eye!
Some councillor or council officer has seen the response of website readers and backtracked rapidly before the local authority is made to look even more foolish than it already is.
And, newyear, I saw these posters myself on lampposts (tied on with string) and in shop windows. I don't think they were up more than a week or so, a fortnight at most. It's the sort of thing you see all over the borough. Why this resident was picked on I don't know.
And I agree -- "mistake" indeed! Just a bit more bad publicity before an election.
newyear
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10:38pm Mon 8 Feb 10
newyear
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10:45pm Mon 8 Feb 10
Techno2
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11:10pm Mon 8 Feb 10
newyear wrote:When I lost my cat I found it because of a person had kindly put a notice up on a lamp post to say that the cat was in their neighbourhood.
Oh, by the by, Helen, when I lost my cat I put notes through my neighbours' letterboxes and that worked too - and no trees were harmed.
It had strayed over half a mile from where I live - I would never had thought the little fellow could have turned up so far away if I'd not come across the notice, and would never have thought of leafletting houses in that area.
Morris Hickey
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11:18pm Mon 8 Feb 10
Techno2
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11:24pm Mon 8 Feb 10
Investigations
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3:52am Tue 9 Feb 10
Investigations
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4:01am Tue 9 Feb 10
Helen, Walthamstow
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8:51am Tue 9 Feb 10
In essence, this family have been picked on because they are honest and give their details. A gentle warning not to do it again would be enough.
Incidentally, they did put notices through neighbours' doors but they couldn't blanket the whole area with these.
newyear
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11:02am Tue 9 Feb 10
Walthamster
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12:57pm Tue 9 Feb 10
The council, on the other hand, injures trees by having them cut back at the wrong time of year, and allows many to be cut down for building developments.
As for the environment: those massive 2007 film posters on the hoardings beside Blackhorse Rd tube are still peeling off in great heavy folds over the pavement, the original pictures obliterated by layers of other posters that have been stuck over them. It's like a picture of urban blight.
Any action from the council? forget it!
Helen, Walthamstow
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1:24pm Tue 9 Feb 10
All I really want is for the heat to be turned on the people who really ruin our environment rather than respectable citizens looking for lost moggies.
livedheretoolong
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1:50pm Tue 9 Feb 10
18 months ago one of our cats disappeared and we put up notices around the immediate neighbourhood (it never occurred to me at the time that we might be contravening various bits of legistlation). Unfortunately the cat was never found but the kind response we received from many local people offering to help was heart warming.
Whilst I understand why one council department would feel the need to control fly posting, etc. I'm sure another one would happily spend millions of pounds of our money thinking up new schemes to try and promote this kind of community cohesion.
So, I think they made the right decision in the end and I'm sure it has nothing to do with the forthcoming local elections.
newyear
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2:30pm Tue 9 Feb 10
Walthamster wrote:In the main, Walthamster, I don't disagree with your point of view, especially in relation to pollarding at the wrong time of year. However, flyposting IS an environmental blight and IS illegal. One only has to look at the number of rusting drawing pins in the mature London Planes around where I live to see that it is indeed a matter of concern. There may only be a few notices (though more than you apparently believe) but over time they can cause damage. As I said before, I think we either have to allow everyone to flypost or no-one; no public authority can or should be expected to make subjective decisions on a case-by-case basis.
Newyear, what is the problem? Very few people put notices on trees except for the occasional lost pet or small local events. It does no harm to trees or environment. The council, on the other hand, injures trees by having them cut back at the wrong time of year, and allows many to be cut down for building developments. As for the environment: those massive 2007 film posters on the hoardings beside Blackhorse Rd tube are still peeling off in great heavy folds over the pavement, the original pictures obliterated by layers of other posters that have been stuck over them. It's like a picture of urban blight. Any action from the council? forget it!
Earle Martin
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2:41pm Tue 9 Feb 10
jrp wrote:Not to mention the "psychic" who's been sticking her posters up around Leytonstone for years. I've made a little sport of personally escorting them to the recycling bin.
Where are these jobsworths when stickers are being put on lamp posts in Leytonstone about prostitution?
Walthamster
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2:51pm Tue 9 Feb 10
The huge derelict hoardings crumbling over the pavement of in Blackhorse Rd may sound trivial, but it's a good example. A potentially dangerous eyesore, but no one is fined, no one is ordered to put it right.
Even more in our faces is the council's own "disappearance" of millions of pounds. Seven investigations, no one fined, no one taken to court.
That's why people get so angry about mean little nitpicking cases like this. They don't see justice being done. It would be different if the council was harsh but fair, but instead we see endless leniency for big offenders, and tough action taken against easy targets.
newyear
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3:53pm Tue 9 Feb 10
ferdy55
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4:37pm Tue 9 Feb 10
Somebody a few months ago put posters up everywhere for a missing parrot!!!! I threw away the one that was outside my house. It looked untidy. Were we all supposed to get a net to catch it or something? Its probably been eaten by a cat by now.
Walthamster
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4:46pm Tue 9 Feb 10
It's nice when, just for once, there's a good result!
mdj
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11:21pm Tue 9 Feb 10
they're pretty well indestructible! They were chosen in the first place because they could shrug off the massive air pollution of the 19th century.
Contrast LBWF's squeamishness about the odd drawing pin with its plan, now approved, to fell 120 mature trees in Lloyd and Aveling Parks as part of the Lottery bid. This will destroy the large blackbird colony in the park; also destroying the theatre on the island will expose the SSRI-protected species there to much more harm from increased lighting and footfall. Envirocrime, anyone?
Pamella
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11:59am Thu 11 Feb 10
high horse
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4:18am Fri 12 Feb 10
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Lynda Dyson with her cat Fluffy
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newyear says...
5:40pm Mon 8 Feb 10
Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005. As well as being cat-locer, I'm also a tree-lover (though not -hugger!), and I'm appalled at the amount of fly-posting on our fine old street trees. Not only is it unsightly and potentially distracting to drivers but when it is affixed with drawing pins (as it often is) these can rust and damage the tree. My heart goes out to those who've lost pets (I'm sure we've all seen the missing parrot ones around the borough recently) but the line has to be drawn somewhere. Rather like the farrago in Walthamstow Town Square this weekend, we need to come to a consensus as a society about which laws and by-laws we're willing to enforce and if we're not, repeal them. With missing pets perhaps the Council should set up a page on its own website where anxious owners can post details rather than risk damaging our environment.