HEADLINES

• The council that adopted a Singapore-style stance on litter
• Rat faeces may be in seized cigarettes
• Campaign aims to cut home smoking
• Britain's oldest smoker dies just a month from her 103rd birthday
• Bono back on Benson and Edges

• The council that adopted a Singapore-style stance on litter

  A man carrying a chip wrapper bustles along the pavement, his search for a bin becoming more frantic with every step. Across the street, a woman smoking a cigarette at a bus stop looks nervously over her shoulder as she surreptitiously flicks ash into the breeze. An older man, spotting The Independent's photographer in town, gets suspicious and demands to know if she is working for the council.

  These are embattled residents of Sandwell. The area, which includes the towns of West Bromwich, Oldbury and Smethwick near Birmingham, boasts what must be some of the tidiest streets in Britain. But cleanliness comes at a cost. Those who fall foul of the council's strict litter laws risk being collared by an army of eagle-eyed wardens, who, residents are beginning to feel, lie in wait around every corner.

  Yesterday, the residents of Oldbury woke up to the news that 70-year-old Sheila Martin faced a £2,500 fine after she refused to pay Sandwell an on-the-spot penalty for flicking ash at a bus stop. "I can't work out why the council would be so vindictive over such a petty matter," she said.

  Last year, Sandwell handed out more than 2,200 penalty fines of £75, compared to just 336 in neighbouring Dudley. Residents have been punished for misdemeanours as minor as allowing tissues to fall from pockets.

  The rule of law has become so severe that some locals are calling Sandwell the new capital of "big brother" Britain, or the "Singapore of the West Midlands", after the city-state that takes a similarly dim view of littering.

  Shoppers on the streets of Oldbury yesterday said they feared being caught out and slapped with "excessive" fines. "The council has got a bit strict recently," said the woman with the cigarette, who refused to be named or pictured.

  She added: "I am surprised you can be fined for dropping ash, it is very harsh. I can understand it if it is the cigarette butt, but the ash just disintegrates immediately, doesn't it?"

  Workers on their lunch break taking advantage of a sunny day wondered if asking nicely wouldn't be more effective, if less lucrative, than fines.

  Claire Boyes, a 34-year-old charity worker, said: "There is a big difference between someone who accidentally drops something while they're running for a bus and someone who throws their litter from their car," she said. "I would rather just be told about it then I would go back and put the litter in a bin. I would be embarrassed, but rather that than pay a fine."

  Ms Boyes is one of many who are worried about the council's approach to littering after a number of stories about residents caught out by its staff. Last year, Kerrie-Anne Hicken was stopped by a council warden after a tissue blew from her pocket as she ran for a bus. Vanessa Kelly was fined for feeding ducks with her son in a park.

  The council eventually agreed the duck-feeding charge was "over the top" and dropped the charges, but it won't back down in the case of Mrs Martin, the bus-stop smoker.

  A council spokesman declined to comment on individual cases yesterday, but said: "In general terms, our wardens do not issue fixed penalty notices for dropping cigarette ash."

  He added: "The council takes a dim view of littering because the people of Sandwell tell us they want clean streets." Waseem Akhtar, 34, who works for a company providing IT to local schools, wondered why the council had decided on the fine of £75, when "£10 would be just as effective as a deterrent".

  He added: "If there are enough bins around, I can understand the council taking action to stop litter-bugs but to fine someone for dropping cigarette ash is just ridiculous."

  Akhtar's colleague, 25-year-old Aunkher Sithu added that, if the wardens have other duties as well as this, then he did not mind quite as much. "But I don't like the idea of council employees standing on street corners just to try to catch people out," he said.

  Back at the bus stop, just before he disappears behind a corner, the man with the fish wrapper finally finds a bin. Throwing his litter inside, the sigh of relief is almost audible.

  Source: The Independent - 17 August 2010
  Link: http://bit.ly/95LZxb

• Rat faeces may be in seized cigarettes

  Dust and rat faeces could have been among the ingredients of illegal cigarettes sold on the streets of Bolton, health campaigners are warning.

  Tens of thousands of counterfeit cigarettes are believed to have been sold by a gang of traders at car boot sales in the town.

  As reported in The Bolton News on Saturday, the four men could have made as much as £400,000 from selling tobacco and cigarettes out of suitcases and laundry bags at Lever Street Market.

  Now it has emerged that while many of the items were brought in from Turkey, the men also sold counterfeit cigarettes.

  And smokers are being warned that the cigarettes contain nastier ingredients than their legal counterpart.

  Deborah Arnott, chief executive of ASH, Action on Smoking and Health, said: “Counterfeit cigarettes contain all sorts of nasty substances, everyone knows cigarettes kill but do you want to smoke dust and rat faeces?

  “The quality control on these counterfeit cigarettes is not good.

  “Tobacco kills and smoking kills but what about all the other stuff people don’t know about?”

  [...]

  HM Revenue and Customs officers seized nearly 47,000 cigarettes and almost 52 kilos of tobacco after searching the four men and their homes.

  It is not known how many cigarettes the gang sold in the town but one member has admitted that they traded in fakes.

  A HMRC source told The Bolton News: “In interview one of the guys told our investigators most of the cigarettes were from Turkey, but some were fake.”

  The gang was secretly filmed selling the cheap products at Lever Street Market between March and July 2009, evading nearly £100,000 in excise duty.

  Omar Mohammed, aged 36, of Roxalina Street, Great Lever, was the gang leader.

  He was jailed for eight months, suspended for two years.

  Market salesman Enver Batkitar, aged 29, of Crescent Road, Great Lever, received a seven month sentence, suspended for two years.

  Shawkat Sidiq, aged 39, of Tildsley Street, Great Lever, another key organiser, was handed a 40 week jail term, suspended for two years, and Sabah Abdul Majid, aged 35, also of Crescent Road, received a seven month sentence, suspended for two years.

  They were all ordered to complete 150 hours unpaid work and face a confiscation hearing under the Proceeds of Crime Act.

  Source: Bolton News - 16 August 2010
  Link: http://bit.ly/aPla0b

• Campaign aims to cut home smoking

  Representatives from a campaign to protect children from cigarette smoke will be in Bolton tomorrow.

  Smokefree North West has launched a Take Seven Steps Out summer roadshow, to spread the word about its initiative, and it will stop off in Victoria Square, in the town centre.

  The new drive aims to encourage parents to take seven steps out of the house before they smoke, sparing their youngsters from breathing in secondhand smoke.

  It is known to cause cot death, asthma attacks, ear infections and impaired hearing among children.

  The scheme hopes to highlight the dangers to parents after a Smokefree North West survey found almost half of parents did not know it could kill babies and more than a third were unaware it could affect their children’s hearing.

  Eighty-six per cent of respondents agreed smokers should be encouraged not to smoke in their home if children live with them.

  The roadshow between 9am and 5pm will be providing more information on the initiative, combined with fun activities like giant musical steps and a visit by kangaroo mascot, StepaRoo and her joey.

  It is part of a tour across the region, which was launched in Manchester on August 10.

  [...]

  Source: Bolton News - 16 August 2010
  Link: http://bit.ly/ciR4uP

• Britain's oldest smoker dies just a month from her 103rd birthday

  The oldest smoker in Britain has died aged 102, after puffing her way through 170,000 cigarettes.

  Winnie Langley started smoking only days after the First World War broke out in June 1914 when she was just seven-years-old - and had five a day until last year.

  She even celebrated her 100th birthday by lighting up her 170,000th cigarette from a candle on her birthday cake.

  The Croydon-based pensioner cut down from her five-a-day habit to just one cigarette last year because of the credit crunch. She then quit at Christmas due to her failing eyesight.

  Family member Anne Gibbs paid a glowing tribute to her aunt.

  'She only gave up because she could not see the end of the match to light it. She was fiesty and stubborn and she also had a wonderful sense of humour,' she told the Croydon Guardian.

  Winnie, who was born in Croydon in 1907 claimed tobacco never made her ill because she didn't inhale, although she did successfully battle cancer in her nineties.

  'There were not all the the health warnings like there are today when I started. It was the done thing,' she said at her 100th birthday party.
  
  She has outlived a husband, Robert, and son, Donald, who died five years ago aged 72.

  Previously the former launderette worker said she started the habit in 1914 as it helped steady her nerves during the world war. 

  Source: Daily Mail - 17 August 2010
  Link: http://bit.ly/9BMoAM

• Bono back on Benson and Edges

  U2 frontman BONO has told how he cracked and took up smoking again while having to lie still with a spinal injury.

  The 50-year-old singer has smoked off and on throughout his career but had managed to kick the habit at last.

  Then he had to put his feet up for two months after emergency surgery on his back in May.

  Bono - who returned to the stage two weeks ago in Italy with bandmates THE EDGE, ADAM CLAYTON and LARRY MULLEN JR - said: "One of the things you can do when you're lying down like that is to write, so I wrote. Lying motionless I also had time to think about the future, because I never think about the past.

  "The other thing I did was to eat ice cream and I also started smoking again."

  Doctors ordered the singer, real name Paul Hewson, to quit in the late '90s following a nasty sinus infection. But he lit up in New York in 2003 and later that year apologised for smoking at a Dublin hotel after an Irish fag ban came in.

  The back injury forced U2 - whose hits include The Unforgettable Fire and Desire - to cancel US gigs and pull out of the Glastonbury Festival.

  But Bono told fans in Turin: "That's in the past now and I'm very much fit for the future.

  "This band is like a family. I am the prodigal son. I would like to thank my brothers for their patience."

  Source: The Scottish Sun - 17 August 2010
  Link: http://bit.ly/bWEH7a