Call to hit street drinkers with on the spot fines

Councillor Brian Heading was speaking after it was revealed that it costs Lisburn City Council 240 to employ a solicitor to bring forward bye-law prosecutions.

The six successful prosecutions over the past 12 months for on street drinking offences brought forward by Lisburn City Council resulted in penalties ranging from a conditional discharge to a fine of 150.

"There are serious inconsistencies in the level of fines being given to offenders in our courtrooms and on some occasions councils go through the costly procedure of bringing people to court where fines are then not even imposed by the local magistrate," said Mr Heading.

"In this era of financial austerity in all areas of spending, we must find more cost effective ways of running our government and the SDLP believes that on-the-spot fines for petty crimes such as street drinking would be better enforced by council officers and the local police.

"We must have a better system for sanctioning those who are not persistent offenders for these types of crimes. Presently fines imposed by the courts are directed to central government, rather than being paid directly to the local district council involved in the proceedings.

"There is also the fundamental problem that the fines administered for these offences, if at all, do not even come close to balancing with the expense the council has to incur to cover its own solicitor costs."

Mr Heading said his party will be pressing Justice Minister David Ford to change the system in the forthcoming Justice Bill.

At the moment the maximum fine that can be imposed is 500.