I was interested to read your article (Guardian, July 5) regarding a dirty Coulsdon caf being fined so heavily after a visit from environmental health officers.
The fine imposed is so heavy £3,500 which has to be paid at £250 per month that the proprietor may have to sell up and leave as a result of the court action. She left the court in tears.
I would like to complain about the double standards of enforcement imposed by courts and environment health officers in bringing actions in the first place.
Vulnerable small businesses such as cafes run by elderly women on their own can expect to be fined so heavily that they are put out of business.
Yet when it comes to dealing with people who cause noise nuisance, or litter droppers, or people who let their dogs foul the footpath, vandals or graffiti artists, or people driving around in cars imposing their loud stereos on others, then the authorities either turn a blind eye and try to avoid becoming involved because they fear confrontation with fit young men, or the court punishments are laughably soft.
Why are there double standards of enforcement by officials? Is it that highly paid council officers are picking on soft targets in order to get prosecutions to publicise in local newspapers, trying to justify their existence?
Graham Jukes
Birdhurst Rise
South Croydon
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