Council bans drivers from tossing papers and flyers in Thorold

Delivery drivers can no longer toss Niagara This Week onto driveways and lawns in Thorold after a decision in city council on Tuesday night.

A near unanimous council decided to pass a bylaw that prohibits unsolicited bag and toss deliveries within city limits after repeated littering complaints from residents, brought forward by councillors.

The initiative was pushed by coun. Anthony Longo, who has taken a long-standing issue with the bagged paper and flyers being thrown from moving delivery cars.

“You need to be a better corporate citizens. Throwing plastic bags on people’s driveways is not a good way to do business,” he said during Tuesday’s meeting, adding that repeated requests to the company to change their ways have not resulted in unwanted papers being handed out.

A delegation from Niagara This Week’s publisher Metroland Media attended the meeting digitally to make their case for the distribution of the paper and its accompanying flyers, that they say gives value to many who can’t use or afford technology to take part in offers.

“Niagara This Week is a part of the community. We bring reputable news, and citizens need the retail value we bring them. To limit that to the readers is a serious problem. Freedom of the press is fundamental to our society. Business needs us, not just to recover but actually survive this situation,” said Charlene Hall, regional director of distribution with Metroland.

She said the company has been trying to deal with the issue of some households getting the paper despite telling the distributor and saying they want the deliveries to stop.

Hall didn’t share the notion of repeated complaints, saying that the ‘vast minority’ of calls coming to their organization are complaints about the deliveries, or requests to stop them.

“We hear from more people when we don’t deliver.”

Council wouldn’t budge.

“I can’t remember the last time you passed and the paper did not land on my driveway,” said coun. Fred Neale.

The drive-by method, often resulting in papers landing on lawns, driveways, sidewalks – or even inches from the face of Victoria Wilson, the councillor herself testified – is being used in neighbourhoods where the company has problems finding reliable carriers who can deliver the paper by hand on the doorstep as intended, according to Hall.

Ideally, they would like to hire carriers who would deliver on foot in their own neighbourhoods, but they are hard to come by, she said.

Council did not buy that explanation, saying that the drivers have been a regular nuisance in the city for a long time.

Hall told council that the company have some carriers with English as a second language, or have special needs.

“They want to do a good job but it takes some time for them to understand that they should not deliver when a customer does not want it. We have carriers that can get confused, or change their route after three years. It’s a learning curve and they might not recognize the stop,” she said, admitting that some customers have had to call several times before they stop receiving the pink bags.

Some also expressed safety concerns with the delivery method, saying drivers constantly checking lists of households while driving and throwing papers through the window simultaneously could result in someone getting seriously hurt.

“As an employer, your responsibility is that they do their job safely. You should be excited about this bylaw, because it is going to make sure that your company does not get sued,” said coun. Victoria Wilson.

The papers can still get delivered in Thorold - in a mailbox.

What penalties could face the company if they do not seize bag-and-toss will be determined at a later date, according to city hall.