Plain clothes dog poo warden rapped for handing out littering fines in Holywell

A plain clothes council enforcement officer on undercover dog fouling patrol has been told to ‘reign it in a bit’ after handing out fines while not dressed in the appropriate uniform.

The Flintshire County Council enforcer was in Holywell on Friday afternoon and witnessed a littering offence take place.

Swiftly acting on finely honed instinct the officer decided to hand out a fixed penalty notice (FPN) to the litter bug for the offence which they had spotted.

Despite doing what many of Holywell’s upstanding citizens may see as the ‘right thing’ by bringing the litter lout ‘to book’ the officer was not dressed in appropriate uniform.

The council has been forced to issue a statement today reiterating Flintshire’s policy on handing out FPN’s and confirming that issuing a fine while not wearing a uniform is in contravention of  council policy.

Flintshire County Council’s Deputy Leader, Councillor Bernie Attridge, said:

“On Friday 7 October, one of Flintshire County Council’s own Enforcement Officers issued a Fixed Penalty Notice for littering in Holywell.

The officer issuing the ticket was on dog fouling patrols and was not in uniform when the ticket was issued.

“The officer witnessed the littering offence when visiting the town at lunch time and made a decision to issue an FPN for the offence.

The Council’s policy for issuing FPN’s for littering offences is that uniform must be worn and as such the ticket will now be withdrawn and the matter will be taken up with the employee concerned.”