It's great to live in Britain (Reprise)

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by Letum

In this case, it is clear that no one did anything wrong.

I disagree. I think several people did several things wrong. This is assuming, of course, that the news story tells the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, and it happened exactly the way it was reported.

The council was not wrong to fine someone for littering.

The council members who approached her could have seen that it was food, not litter that had to be cleaned up, and that the birds had taken it all. The council proper could have questioned them on this and let it go. The spirit of the law versus the letter of the law, and all that.

The mother/child did not do anything wrong when dropping a bit of sausage roll.

If it had been anything but food that the birds jumped on it would have been different, but I think she was right in this case.

And the law was not wrong in keeping the rules about dropping litter simple by banning
ALL littering regardless of circumstance.

No, but the people tasked with enforcing laws like this need to use their heads for more than a hatrack.

The council can't either investigate every littering case in detail and thereby push up council
tax either. Chances are that everyone just 'did their job' once the wheels had been
put into motion.

Sounds to me like a case of petty beaurocrats taking themselves just a little too seriously.

Something certinaly needs to be done to prevent this in the future, but I struggle
to find a way to fix the problem without needing more cash for investigating each case
to see if a mistake like this has been made before the fine goes through or without
legaliseing littering.

Why are you struggling at all? It's simple: tell the enforcers that if they see someone leave wrappers or anything that won't go away without another human being picking it up, to approach the offender and speak to them. "I'm sorry to bother you, madam, but we have very strict littering laws. I'm going to have to ask you to pick up your litter and put it in the rubbish bin." If she causes trouble, then crack her skull...I mean, fine her.