ONE in five littering fines are quashed in Blackburn with Darwen, new figures have revealed.

Enforcement officers started patrolling the streets in October issuing fines for dropping cigarette butts and rubbish as well as not picking up after their dog.

In nine months, more than 5,154 penalty notices have been handed out, but of those 1,154 have been cancelled by Kingdom Environmental Enforcement, which runs the scheme on behalf of the council.

There are also 664 of the £75 fines which remain unpaid.

The figures were uncovered by a Freedom of Information request to Blackburn with Darwen Council.

Environment boss Cllr Jim Smith said: "If the officers have made a mistake then people can appeal the decision and each one is judged on an individual basis.

“We do not know all of the reasons why they may have been cancelled.

“As a council we don’t have anything to do with that apart from we set the parameters for Kingdom for what we want people to be caught for.

“When we were doing enforcing this as a council, the number of instances of dog fouling we caught was just five but since Kingdom have done it they have caught 35.

“Many complaints from local people are about dog fouling and we are determined to do something about it.”

A breakdown of the figures shows that 4,957 people were fined for dropping cigarettes, 27 for dropping food, 27 for dropping 'printed litter', two for dumping black bags full of rubbish and one person for spitting. There were 150 fines handed out for other reasons, including not picking up dog mess.

Cllr Smith added: "Some other authorities take action against spitting but we do not and it is likely that this is one of the ones that was cancelled.

“I feel the whole point is to get the borough cleaner and tidier and make Blackburn with Darwen a clean place to live in.

“Some people think that there should be two men should be going around and cleaning up after people but this is not a solution.

“I think most people agree with what we are trying to do.

“I don’t think people should be littering. It is making some people think about their behaviour."

Leader of the opposition Cllr John Slater said: “We have to look at the positives about how successful Kingdom have been.

“It was championed by myself and the Tory group and we are happy it has been adopted.

“Everybody wants the borough to be the best place to live and fines are a determining factor to stop them littering.

“One of my constituents got fined for dropping litter but it fell out of their pocket and they told the officer.

"It had already been processed but is was cancelled.”

Resident, John Buck, who submitted the Freedom of Information request, said: “It is concerning that so many people have had their notice cancelled.

“Most people don’t think they have a chance of appeal and just accept it. It shows that if you do appeal then you have a chance of having the fine quashed."

Kingdom Environmental Enforcement refused to comment.