Illegal flyers get grounded; TIDY-UP: Leaflet distributors face penalties in city crackdown.

Byline: By David Bell

TOUTS who hand out unwanted advertising flyers in the city centre were today warned they could face fines of up to pounds 2,500.

Council clean-up campaigners are invoking new legislation to ban leaflet distributors from operating inside Birmingham's ring road unless they have a local licence.

The pounds 250 permit requires them to pick up all the leaflets dumped by passers-by.

And when the new rules come into force at the start of December, public health teams are poised to crack down hard and prosecute unlicensed touts.

"We intend to drive the renegades out of Birmingham," warned public protection chairman Coun Neil Eustace.

"People who hand out these leaflets - particularly in areas like the New Street Station ramp - are making the city look a mess.

"Most passers-by don't want them and throw them away. Some parts of Birmingham's shopping centres and areas like Broad Street are absolutely carpeted with them, and they take a lot of clearing up."

Coun Eustace said the legislation requiring leafleteers to do their own cleaning up was particularly useful. "If we have any trouble and they don't abide by the rules, we will simply revoke the licence," he said.

Flyer distribution in the city has been used to promote everything from palm readings to alternative medicines, mobile phones and dieting courses.

The new crackdown comes as officials claim to have cracked the fly poster and placarding cowboys who have been defacing the city.

A mixture of criminal and civil proceedings backed by CCTV evidence has led to penal fines running into thousands of pounds - and a noticeable decline in the level of abuse.

CAPTION(S):

CONCERNED... Coun Neil Eustace.' LITTERING THE STREETS... leaflets on the pavement in New Street in the city centre. Picture: Darren Quinton

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Publication:	Birmingham Mail (England)
Date:	Jul 21, 2006
Words:	296
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