Alt.Cardiff Magazine: The Trash Talk Issue

Alt.Cardiff

January 2023 Issue 1

Trash talk

To fine or not to fine for litter, that’s the question

Volunteer to make an older person smile this Christmas

By Poorvi Singhal

Young people in Cardiff can volunteer to support older people who experience loneliness during the festive season.

Independent charity Age Connects encourages volunteers to have a chat, drive around, take a stroll or share a cup of coffee with older people to bring them joy at Christmas.

“Volunteers often come up to us and tell us how they benefit from helping an older person,” says Karen Fletcher, marketing and partnerships manager at Age Connects charity.

Contributors can phone their older companions, drive them around to run errands, participate in outdoor activities with them, catch up for coffee or visit them at their homes for a chat on a regular basis.

Over Christmas, volunteers can help out during lunches, tea parties and other celebrations.

Volunteers are often introduced to clients based on shared interests. “We matched a student

who loves rugby with a client who loves the sport too. They love to watch matches together,” says Fletcher.

She says these activities stave off feelings of isolation among older people and help them become a part of a larger community.

All those who are 18 and older have to undergo a DBS (Disclosure and Barring Services) check and training to register as a volunteer.

Half of the people in Wales

who are 75 and over report feeling lonely sometimes. Meanwhile, more than one in 10 older people who are 60 and above say they are constantly lonely, according to Welsh government’s official data. But, why is loneliness sucwwh a problem in Cardiff?

Fletcher says, “It’s not just in Wales and in older people. Our interpersonal relationships have changed, people prefer talking on the phone rather than seeing their friends, that’s the problem.”

Re-engage enlists programmes

going on during Christmas so that isolated older people can find company to stave off feelings of loneliness. It provides a free online directory of events to encourage older people to spend time with others.

Wales has the highest prevalence of diabetes in the UK yet, only a few bakeries in the city offer low sugar cakes.

Cardiff Bakestones in Central Market is one of the very few places in the capital to serve diabetic-friendly desserts.

On World Diabetes Day, they will be serving three diabetic friendly options: fruit and plain Welsh cakes, fruit and plain scones and rock cakes. Tucked in the Cardiff Central

Market on St Mary Street, this bakery has been offering warm Welsh cakes for 22 years.

Cardiff Bakestones welcomes customers Monday to Saturday from 8am to 5pm with a selection of diabetic friendly desserts. The Welsh cakes cost £2.00 for 5 pieces, rock cakes £1.30 and scones 60p apiece.

Help an older person tackle loneliness by phoning them, buying groceries or decorating their home

Are you diabetic with a sweet tooth?

Charity helps older people at Christmas

Volunteers help older people get into the Christmas spirit

Benjamin Downing has been living and breathing pre-loved clothing with his thrift store Hobo’s Vintage since before it was a trend. And today, shoppers in the city are buying second-hand more than ever. Reports suggest this could be due to the cost-of-living crisis.

Being unemployed for 18 months right after university and seeing his friends settle into conventional jobs, Ben still didn’t know what to do.

“My girlfriend just said, ‘You love vintage clothes. Why don’t we open a store?’ So, we raised enough money to pay for rent,” says Benjamin.

From ’92 to ’22

Setting up shop in Swansea in 1992 and moving to Cardiff after two years, Ben says “change” in fashion trends has kept the business relevant. In these 30 years, it has changed massively.

When Ben started out, he opened the store seven days a week. “We just worked so hard

for 10 years, just to try and make it work,” he says, billing a happy thrifter for a fleece.

La Familia

His eldest one, Millie, put Hobo’s on the Gram and currently, the page boasts 6K followers. The twin boys and their elder brother also take turns at the counter.

Ben credits his kids for keeping him relevant and jokes that they find him “annoying.”

His daughter disagrees. “He’s very clever, very business-minded.

He’s good at creative thinking and problem-solving and that is how the shop has done so well,” shares Millie, spilling her dad’s secret talents.

If not into thrifting, he would’ve either been a graphic designer or DJ, says Ben, very excited for his kids to attend his music gig in his hometown,

Swansea. “I’d love to DJ twice a week and have unlimited funds to buy records.”

Looking ahead

Sharing a conversation with a thrift store owner from three years ago, Ben says, “Me and him were sitting and chatting and he said, ‘Vintage will overtake fast fashion.’” This has stayed with Ben and today, he believes the rise in thrift culture has been beneficial to his business.

“This year has been okay. But, it does go in cycles. The turnover has been good in the last four weeks. We’re not going ‘wow’, look at us,” says a humble Ben, after facing a lull in the lockdown and delayed deliveries due to dock strikes worldwide.

And, what does the future hold for him? The 55-year-old looks at his store and goes, “We wanna try to keep it going. I’d love to stay here. It’s beautiful, isn’t it?”

“My girlfriend just said, ‘You love vintage clothes. Why don’t we open a store?’”

Owner of Hobo’s Vintage Clothing Benjamin Downing has been into thrifting for 30 years and says people are accepting pre-loved now more than ever

Image credits: Poorvi Singhal

It’s not fine

Is fining more people a solution to litter in Cardiff?

While a part of Butetown thinks it is the way out, Cardiff council and environment organisations have a different view

Amum shrills, “David, come on, hurry up!” as he kicks a half-empty bottle of Coke onto a dustbin in St Mary’s street. It was just another addition to the bag of chips, mayo-smeared burger box and squished bottles of iced tea that make for 20.7% of all litter in Wales, as per a recent survey.

Of late, many people have been complaining about litter. Tali Morrish, manager at Mrs Potts Chocolate House in Morgan Arcade believes litter sometimes impacts her business as she has seen bins being ripped onto the street outside her cafe which only got cleared the next morning.

But, who is accountable for this overflowing rubbish – grumpy David, his mum, or the litter enforcement officers responsible for managing them?

Cardiff Council has appointed waste enforcement officers throughout the city who can issue

Fixed Penalty Notices (FPNs) worth £100 if they see anyone littering on roads.

The council also has street cleansing teams that collect litter however, they are not authorised to penalise litterers.

Thomas, a member of the cleansing team in Butetown says we need more bins to control litter, especially outside eateries.

He adds, “we definitely need someone out there fining people. People feel it’s okay to throw away their cigarette butts on roads, it’s not cool.”

A street cleanliness survey conducted by Keep Wales Tidy in 2021-22 shows that litter dropped by pedestrians accounts for 84.2% of all litter on streets in Wales. Smoke litter (cigarette butts, filter tips, lighters) and confectionary waste like lolly sticks, crisp packets, etc also significantly contribute to the overall litter.

“I think more people need to

be fined. I don’t think people are actually getting caught littering. Who is going about and giving these fines? Like, I’ve never seen anyone.” says Morish.

A Freedom of Information (FOI) report says, Cardiff had only 25 litter enforcement officers overseeing the entire city between 2017 and 2018 and 18 between 2016 and 2017, five less than in 2015-16. Considering Cardiff is the largest city in Wales by area (140.3 square km), the number of officers may not be sufficient to guard the entire city.

Swansea council authorised more officers to issue FPNs in 2021 to manage litter whereas Cardiff Council believes in education over enforcement.

Image credits: Poorvi Singhal, Pexels

Number of fines issued

Cardiff council issued mere 61 fines for littering in 2020-21 out of which only 42 were paid.

However, in a recent FOI report, the council said it issued 168 fines in 2021, which is roughly three fines per week. It issued 137 fines in 2020 whereas Rhondda Cynon Taff county borough council penalised 224 litterers between April 2020 and March 2021.

Cardiff council issued the highest number of fines (446) in 2019 in the last five years.

Although the council doesn’t hold data for years before 2018, it can be deduced it wouldn’t have penalised many litterers. On the contrary, Newport council’s enforcement team issued 940 penalty notices between March and December of 2016.

Anyone penalised in Cardiff who fails to pay their FPN within a month can be legally tried in the Magistrate’s Court. The fine is reduced by 50% if the amount is paid within 14 days of the charge.

Education over enforcement Keep Wales Tidy, a charity working with local communities in Wales to protect the environment believes

enforcement only works when combined with wider engagement, education and a prevention strategy.

Its policy and research manager, Jemma Bere explains, “The main issue with enforcement is that the crime has to be witnessed, this is resource intensive in terms of staff time on the ground but also on the administrative staff and the courts. Education and engagement should be the first port of call.”

However, Morrish says we need more people to collect litter, fine more people if necessary and increase the value of fines.

She adds, “If you want the donkey to move, use a carrot, not a whip. But sometimes you need to use a whip.”

Councillor Margaret Lewis of Butetown area who is also a member of the Environmental Scrutiny Committee says fining isn’t a long-term solution. She believes, “Educating people about this problem is a more effective solution.”

She mentions the Cardiff Gov mobile application developed by Cardiff council through which we can report litter (not the litterer), fly-tipping and dog fouling to the council.

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“If you want the donkey to move, use a carrot, not a whip. But sometimes you need to use a whip’”