More than 700 drivers handed litter fines by Dacorum Council as part of 'wild wee' row

Hundreds of penalties have been issued to people who relieved themselves at the side of just one road, it has emerged.

Dacorum Borough Council has become embroiled in a "wild wee" row after it issued 762 fixed penalty notices to motorists who urinated on a lay-by on the A41 near Kings Langley last year.

The council revealed more than 985 of all the fines issued in 2023 were dished out at lay-bys on the A41 near King's Langley, according to figures seen by the BBC.

One those fined was 73-year-old Tony Leach, who was driving from Maidstone in Kent to his granddaughter's 18th birthday when he stopped at an A41 layby near King's Langley last November.

He said: "I chose a spot that was unlikely to cause any offence to anybody.

"But when I turned around there was a guy right behind me who said I was on camera and that he was issuing me a fixed penalty notice for an apparent breach of the Environmental Protection Act. I was pretty cheesed off."

Mr Leach said: "It beggars belief. They are treating motorists as cash cows.

"The other thing that bothers me is they are finding motorists relieving themselves for littering, but have they looked at that road?

"There's loads of real litter there which is not actually being dealt with."

The council has also been criticised by Nick Freeman, a lawyer popularly known as Mr Loophole, after it fined Michael Mason, from Winslow, Buckinghamshire, for littering when he relieved himself at the lay-by last year.

Speaking to BBC Three Countries Radio, Mr Freeman said: "My reaction is that those monies belong to the taxpayer, they should be returned."

Mr Freeman called for Dacorum Borough Council to be "criminally investigated for their continuing practice of fining people for taking a 'wild wee' under environmental legislation."

The council has previously said: "Fixed Penalty Notices (FPNs) are issued for urinating in public laybys, along a busy stretch of the A41 dual carriageway, and not 'wild wees' in woodlands or countryside."

It added: "We have sought independent legal advice on the use of littering FPNs for urination, as have many other councils, and we are satisfied that urination can be covered by the relevant legislation."

Dacorum Borough Council has been approached for comment.

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