Anger after Brighton Council fines tea worker for flyering

Bird and Blend handed out free brews on its doorstep in Brighton’s North Laine to celebrate National Tea Day last week.

Brighton and Hove City Council’s environmental enforcement team spotted a worker in Gardner Street and slapped her with a £150 on-the-spot fine.

They claim a "how to make at home” information card handed out with the tea samples amounted to flyering.

Bird and Blend Tea's owner, Krisi Smith, said her worker was told if she did not give her own personal details and arrange payment immediately, they would call the police.

The offending material was handed out with the tea samples

The business, which employs more than 120 people, has now paid the fine on behalf of the employee.

Ms Smith said: “Businesses across the city have had such a challenging time so it’s really important that we’re all supporting them get back out into the world.

“Teams on the frontline do not deserve to feel attacked or threatened in the workplace by an infringement, which is being loosely applied in an aggressive manner.

“That is not in the spirit of support, we all need to work on supporting each other, including the council, to help business to get back on our feet again.”

In a bid to tackle littering, a flyering ban in the city centre was introduced 2008.

The fine was handed to the worker personally

People who want to hand out printed materials advertising things such events, businesses or political messages, have to pay the council £300 annually for a licence.

Ms Smith said she did not deny wrongdoing, but argued discretion should have been applied considering the size of the printed material and how close the worker was to her business.

She said: “This is obviously not at all helpful on so many levels.

“I now have a new team member who has been treated appallingly in her first week, who was trying her best to get customers to revisit our store and is now upset and put off. 

“The threat of calling the police and having to hand out personal details makes me very angry to think of a member of my team being in this situation during her working day

“They confiscated materials that we have paid for, and as a small business struggling to get back up and running this has a cost to us and is incredibly unsympathetic. 

“If councils say that they want to support the local highstreet with initiatives to get people back to our community spaces all of their teams should be aware of the challenges we all face and we need to work on this together.


“We are two weeks out of lockdown, with revenue down and struggling –like everyone else – to make the most of a very challenging commercial time and this just makes us feel completely unsupported and up against it.”

In 2011, more than 100 people signed a petition calling for an end to the flyering ban.

They argued the ban was having a "disastrous effect on local businesses" with the income generated being used to pay for its enforcement, rather than cleaning litter.

A Brighton and Hove City Council spokesman responded: “Flyering or handing out free printed material is a criminal offence unless it is licensed by the council.

“There is a designated area across the city that requires individuals or businesses to obtain a licence to allow them to carry out this activity.

“This can be obtained by applying online on the council website.

"With businesses starting to open their doors for the first time since the latest lockdown, our street cleansing teams have been hard at work ensuring that areas with high increased amounts of footfall are clean and free of litter for residents and visitors alike.

“We appreciate that businesses have been closed for some time. But it is vital for business to obtain the correct licences to comply with the necessary legislation.

“Sadly not every person who is in receipt of a leaflet will use or dispose of it correctly.”