Environmental Protection Act 1990

92 Summary proceedings by litter authorities

(1) Where a principal litter authority other than a county council, regional council or joint board are satisfied as respects—

(a) any relevant Crown land,

(b) any relevant land of a designated statutory undertaker,

(c) any relevant land of a designated educational institution, or

(d) any relevant land within a litter control area of a local authority,

that it is defaced by litter or refuse or that defacement of it by litter or refuse is likely to recur, the authority shall serve a notice (a “litter abatement notice”) imposing either the requirement or the prohibition or both the requirement and the prohibition specified in subsection (2) below.

(2) The requirement and prohibition referred to in subsection (1) above are as follows, namely—

(a) a requirement that the litter or refuse be cleared within a time specified in the notice;

(b) a prohibition on permitting the land to become defaced by litter or refuse.

(3) The litter abatement notice shall be served—

(a) as respects relevant Crown land, on the appropriate Crown authority;

(b) as respects relevant land of a designated statutory undertaker, on the undertaker;

(c) as respects relevant land of a designated educational institution, on the governing body of the institution or in Scotland on such body or, as the case may be, on the education authority responsible for the management of the institution;

(d) in any other case, on the occupier of the land or, if it is unoccupied, on the owner of the land.

(4) The person served with the notice may appeal against the notice to a magistrates' court or, in Scotland, to the sheriff by way of summary application within the period of twenty-one days beginning with the date on which the notice was served.

(5) If, on any appeal under subsection (4) above, the appellant proves that, as respects the land in question, he has complied with his duty under section 89(1) above, the court shall allow the appeal.

(6) If a person on whom a litter abatement notice is served, without reasonable excuse, fails to comply with or contravenes the requirement or prohibition imposed by the notice, he shall be guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 4 on the standard scale together with a further fine of an amount equal to one-twentieth of that level for each day on which the offence continues after the conviction.

(7) In any proceedings for an offence under subsection (6) above it shall be a defence for the person charged to prove that he has complied, as respects the land in question, with his duty under section 89(1) above.

(8) A code of practice under section 89(7) above shall be admissible in evidence in any proceedings under this section and if any provision of such a code appears to the court to be relevant to any question in the proceedings it shall be taken into account in determining that question.

(9) If a person on whom a litter abatement notice is served fails to comply with the requirement imposed by the notice in respect of any land, the authority may, subject to subsection (10) below—

(a) enter on the land and clear the litter or refuse; and

(b) recover from that person the expenditure attributable to their having done so, except such of the expenditure as that person shows was unnecessary in the circumstances.

(10) Subsection (9) above does not apply in relation to relevant Crown land or relevant land of statutory undertakers.