East Lindsey council leaders to call on Government to introduce marked fast food packaging in bid to reduce littering

Members of East Lindsey District Council agreed to lobby the Government and work with other local authorities to introduce a marking system whereby a person’s vehicle registration number is marked on fast food packaging – in an attempt to stop people littering on roads, verges and lay-bys.

The motion was brought forward by Coun Travis Hesketh (Independent – Withern and Theddlethorpe) at a full council meeting on Wednesday (October 14).

During the meeting, he said: “This motion is all about simply marking that packaging with the registration number of the car as a deterrent more than anything else – so that if any is found it could be traced back to the person who certainly was driving the car.

“I think it could have a significant effect on the amount of litter. It would make the whole of our community and countryside a lot cleaner and I think it’s something as a council we could show some initiative on.”

While the motion was passed, some members were concerned about how the idea would be implemented.

Deputy council leader Graham Marsh (Conservative – Alford) said: “The snags I see with it are you can put the registration number of a vehicle on it, but then the person will say ‘It wasn’t me, it was a passenger’.

“As far as I’m aware, there is no legislation where you can make the driver tell you who the passenger was, so this would need a change in legislation.

“I think the Government might be supportive, but I don’t care what political colour you are, this will be so far down the list, it would need icebergs around it just to keep it fresh.”

As part of the motion, executive councillors and council officers will also lobby relevant industry bodies and work with Lincolnshire County Council and other local authorities to promote the proposal.

Executive councillors will report back with the council’s progress at a later date.