Kids to be banned from buying spray paints?

The Department of the Environment has initiated discussion on the ‘Draft Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Bill’.

One proposal will enable Councils to ‘restrict the distribution of flyers, hand-outs and pamphlets that can end up as litter’.

And in a bid to reduce graffiti, another proposal would give councils the ability to issue fixed penalty notices regarding graffiti and fly-posting and making it an offence to sell spray paints to children.

And the new proposals will also look at abandoned shopping trolleys.

A letter to Moyle Council from the Department of Environment said: ‘Abandoned trolleys can be a visible problem affecting the quality of our streets and public places and can also be a hazard.

‘When dumped in watercourses they can cause particular problems and they may also cause harm to wildlife.

‘The Bill will give district councils the power to recover the costs of dealing with abandoned shopping trolleys from their owners’.

The proposed Bill will also give District Councils new powers to deal with ‘nuisance parking in respect of businesses that sell or repair cars, on the road.’

The letter said: ‘Such vehicles can be a nuisance. They can reduce parking opportunities and cause pollution, for example where oil is spilled or leaked. Two new offences will be created: offering for sale two or more vehicles or repairing a vehicle on the road as part of a business’.