www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-19846121
A teacher has said he is angry about being fined £150 for throwing an apple core out of his car into a hedge.
Cyril Falls, 53, who is a teacher at Bangor Academy, County Down, said he thought it was OK to throw the apple core because it is biodegradable.
The incident happened in Saintfield, County Down, earlier this year.
A Down District Council enforcement officer who was in the car behind him as they were stopped at a junction took down his registration number.
I make a point of lobbing my banana skins over the roof into the hedge. I'm quite good at it and have never seen the harm.
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Next we'll be fined for flicking our bogies from our noses..!!
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Fine was £50.
He failed to pay.
In court for failing to pay+fine+ costs =£250
No sympathy, he pleads poverty.............really he should be responsible, show a good example to the kids he teaches and take his rubbish home / put it in a street bin.
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I've been to Saintfield. Can't remember why. Wasn't much there or happening there as I recall. I expect the case of apple core lobber livened things up for a while.
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I would have denied it ever happened, and told them to produce the aforesaid apple core in court. It would never have been found of course, they dont get time to degrade, being rapidly consumed by whatever wild life is rooting around in there.
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>> Fine was £50.
>> He failed to pay.
>> In court for failing to pay+fine+ costs =£250
>>
>> No sympathy, he pleads poverty.............really he should be responsible, show a good example to the
>> kids he teaches and take his rubbish home / put it in a street bin.
>>
Oh! Dear, really?
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I would have thought a sane judge or magistrate would buy the biodegradable argument in court and dismiss the case. I would be most reluctant to pay a fine for something like that.
The French poet Rimbaud used to collect body lice in a matchbox and flick them covertly at priests. Perhaps a campaign should be mounted to persecute 'council enforcement officers' and road planning officials in the same way.
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Sadly he rather undermined his position by semi-ignoring the £50 fine. He should have got organised and started a proper cause celebre.
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>> Sadly he rather undermined his position by semi-ignoring the £50 fine. He should have got
>> organised and started a proper cause celebre.
>>
You expect logic from a teacher?
Get real :-)
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I lob apple cores out the window if there's a hedge to throw it in...I'm glad for some creature to eat it.
I have every intention of carrying on, as well.
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I have to say that I've always told the kids its ok to throw apples and the like into the hedge as well.
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'This conscientious citizen, m'Lud, despite a rooted dislike of apples and a sucrose-intolerant gut, has made it his business to plant apple trees in the hedgerows of this country, sadly depleted in recent times by mechanized agriculture and hedging-and-ditching techniques. For this selfless behaviour he should be awarded a substantial sum out of the public purse, and I so propose. The case rests.'
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What a waste of public money. The council bod needs to get a life. I've half a mind to pay his fine for him...
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I want to know when they are going to drag the apple tree to court for its reckless and repeated littering. It needs an ASBO minimum.
Anti Social Branch Order.
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I wonder what they plan to do about leaf fall?
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>> The incident happened in Saintfield, County Down,
>>
village with a population around 3k to 4k
why not complain to them if you think they deserve to be told off.
Last edited by: John H on Sat 6 Oct 12 at 18:06
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Apple core is a bit much to be fined for.Plastic bottles beer cans any rubbish you find on the street.
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Litter is litter, and anyone caught littering should be fined as an example to others.
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>> Litter is litter, and anyone caught littering should be fined as an example to others.
Including the tree?
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I got a £50 or £60 fine (can't remember) for dropping a fag end in a rather busy Princes St, Edinburgh, last year during the comedy festival. Walked straight round to the office to pay it, but it was all a bit embarrassing (not to say costly). Suffice to say I (usually) look for a bin these days.
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A bike is a good vantage point for viewing the hedge bottom. The sheer quantity of plastic bottles, cans and fast food wrappers on out inter-village lanes is sickening. There's usually a volunteer clean up in spring when bags and bags of the stuff is collected. Never been bothered by an apple core or 'nana skin though.
Ciggie ends are another bete-noir. The smokers from several adjacent buildings gather in a couple of doorways in one of the alleyways off Chancery Lane; dog ends are like autumn leaves.
Article in Guardian a few months ago covering a Welsh Council's employment of a private firm to police a zero tolerance litter policy. Challenged butt dropper asks in whining tone what she'e meant to do, put it in her pocket still burning?
No luv you get an old tobacco tin and stub it out in there (or drag your carcass to a bin).
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>> No luv you get an old tobacco tin and stub it out in there (or
>> drag your carcass to a bin).
Ah yes, the good old bin fire, always entertaining to watch, that one.
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Walking on the island of Harris a few year back through an interesting light on the habits of the locals. The ditches at the side of the roads were littered with considerable numbers of whiskey bottles, some of which had obviously been there a very long while been, evidently discarded from passing cars.
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>> >> Litter is litter, and anyone caught littering should be fined as an example to
>> others.
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>> Including the tree?
>>
A tree is "it".
"Anyone" is a person.
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And an apple core is not litter.
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It's a bit of a storm in a teacup. But if it was me, I would have taken the apple core home, or dumped it in a bin somewhere.
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At home apple cores and banana skins get composted and put on the garden.
When we are overwhelmed with rubbish and exhausting landfill opportunities, there are few better places for an apple core than a hedge bottom.
Except, possibly, the bottom of the council gauleiter who oversees this criminalising of the composting classes.
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I always eat the core.
Fact of the day
Did you know that apple seeds contain cyanide? There was a case of someone who like their almondy taste so much that he saved up a whole cup and ate them at one sitting and killed himself.
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>> I always eat the core.
And the orange peel?
And I know what's coming next...
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Did you know that apple seeds contain cyanide?
Peach, apricot and plum stones do too. Bit sceptical about the whole cupful story; I suppose it could happen but I'd expect it to have to be a very big cup.
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A lot would depend on whether he was an efficient masticator.
If they aren't crushed they just pass through, which is what seeds tend to do so they can get distributed by the animals that eat the fruit.
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Trees are people too, you know.
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Next they'll be fining us for windfall apples that land on the highway from our trees, then it'll be leaf fall that we get fined for. Completely bonkers.
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£150 for apple core in hedge - Bigtee
