Agenda item

A report from Neil Long is attached

Councillor Quinn, Cabinet Member for Environment attended the meeting along with Neil Long, Assistant Director (Operations) and Lorraine Chamberlin Head of Health and Environmental Protection.

It was explained that there was a small cross departmental group of Council Officers called the Environmental Quality and Fly Tipping Task Group who were working to improve the Council’s response to increasing levels of fly tipping in the borough.

The group have identified hotspots which are targeted by fly-tippers on a sporadic basis. From this work they have been able to identify sites that are targeted more regularly and where a range of interventions such as signage, enforcement, targeted community action and deployment of CCTV may assist with catching offenders and act as a deterrent.

The group had been allocated a one off budget of £100k to tackle problems in the following ways:

Common Management Information System - £5,000

Targeted Neighbourhood Action - £30,000

CCTV Surveillance - £15,000

Replace Damaged and Missing Bins - £35,000

Replace Fly Tipping and Dog Fouling Signage - £5,000

Fly Tipping Clearance in Back Streets and Private Land Hot Spots - £10,000

It was reported that during 2017 there had been 4 prosecutions and 2 simple cautions for fly tipping and duty of care offences and these had been publicised through social media and the press .

It was also reported that the Council had been working with residents and local businesses to encourage the upkeep of unadopted back streets.

Work was ongoing in relation to public rights of way and sometimes attract fly tippers due to their ease of access and not being in view of the public. Barriers had been erected at some sites to prevent vehicular access and the areas which were considered hotspots were being evaluated for signage and CCTV coverage.

It was explained that there had been a recent community tidy up which had been carried out in one area of the borough. It had involved neighbourhood working with the community and had been a successful exercise. The area was being monitored following the tidy up and was staying relatively clear.

Those present were given the opportunity to ask questions and make comments and the following points were raised:

• Councillor Walker asked if Councillors could be given information which would enable them to help with future tidy up schemes and arrange their own.

It was explained that the pilot that had been carried out would be assessed and it was planned to produce a toolkit which could then be rolled out to all neighbourhoods.

• Councillor Smith referred to the use of CCTV and asked what legal restrictions there were relating to this.

Neil explained that the use of CCTV would be used as a deterrent so would be signed in the areas in which it was installed. Mainly small patches of land that were frequently being used for dumping.

It was agreed:

1.           That the contents of the report be noted.

2.           That Councillor Quinn, Neil Long and Lorraine Chamberlin be thanked for their report.