The report of the Strategic Director, Place (Document “O”) provides an update from the Environmental Enforcement Team with regards flytipping including information of new structural arrangements, strategies to deal with flytipping and information on numbers of notices and prosecutions in 2018/19.  The report also provides an update on the numbers of flytips reported to the council, the tonnage of fly tips and analysis of relevant waste data.

Recommended –

That the update on fly tipping and enforcement actions to address the problem are considered.

Amjad Ishaq – 01274 431066

The report of the Strategic Director, Place (Document “O”) provided an update from the Environmental Enforcement Team with regards to flytipping including information of new structural arrangements, strategies to deal with flytipping and information on numbers of notices and prosecutions in 2018/19.  The report also provided an update on the numbers of flytips reported to the Council, the tonnage of fly tips and analysis of relevant waste data.

The Shipley Area Co-ordinator, theEnvironmental Services & Enforcement Manager and the Systems and Information Officer were present and with the invitation of the Chair, gave a joint presentation of the report.

A question and answer session ensued –

·         Flytipping was a huge problem in the district and following expressing concerns to Environmental Services with discussions of community led solutions, it was disappointing to find a lack of information on previous discussions. Therefore a brief synopsis of any work that had been undertaken as discussed would be appreciated?

o   The service did not have a experienced officer to assist in environment community behaviour changes and therefore a new position, a ‘Behavioural Change Officer’ had been created and advertised. The post would be filled in the near future to assist in changing the behaviour and attitude of communities towards positive cleaner environmental advantages. Furthermore recruitment exercises had been undertaken to recruit volunteers to participate in community led solutions but this of course was not a final problem solver;

·         There were continuous issues around the area of collection points of waste and due to negative attitudes of people, many individuals were leaving contaminated household waste on the pavement. The bins were also full of contaminated household waste. What was the cause of overfull waste collection points?

o   Many Wards were non operational and lacked efficiency in terms of operational coverage of environment cleansing but there was a need for significant funding in order to tackle all environmental issues on an operational level. However the matter of collection points had been discussed between officers and there were plans to take an operational review of collection points for future environmental needs;

·         There were many businesses that were clearing waste disposal outside of their business premises but what was being done in regards to a select number of businesses that were not participating in a cleaner environment?

o   In order to address concerns, the service required witnesses to identify perpetrators who dropped litter but witnesses were conscious of their own safety issues;

·         What was the process of meeting the request of a Member wishing to have a camera installed in their respective Ward at a flytipping hotspot area?

o   The Council had active cameras and costs entailed an electric line feed and a link to a television monitor. The request for a CCTV could be made through a Ward Officer;

·         An explanation of the recycling process for Bradford was sought?

o   The Portfolio Holder, Healthy People and Places responded that officers present were not employees of the waste recycling department however a video of Bradford’s recycling process was on the Council’s website;

·         How was households of their duties towards disposing waste responsibly?

o   A social media campaign had been undertaken;

·         How were perpetrators of flytipping and household illegal waste dumping identified?

o   There was only one officer working in one area at a time and therefore identifying perpetrators was not an easy process to achieve due to a lack of manpower;

·         Due to a number of families that choose to live on rent, had the service engaged with letting agents? and,

o   The service was assisting landlords to work together as an association;

·         In regards to waste disposing, who exactly applied for licenses?

o   Scrap metal dealers.

During the discussion, it was stated that there were a number of waste bins located in the East Bowling area of Bradford that lacked clear signage indicating the correct waste and process for disposal hence not correct waste was not being disposed in them and, it was important for the service to work with communities in order to make a positive difference.

Resolved –

(1)       That the Committee thanks the Clean Teams for the work            undertaken in the District to tackle fly tipping.

(2)       That a report be presented to the Regeneration and Environment         Overview and Scrutiny Committee which focuses on –

            (a)       the continuing actions undertaken to address fly tipping              across the District

            (b)       the approaches used to increase community led volunteers

            (c)       work undertaken with local communities to increase                                 environmental responsibilities

ACTION: Strategic Director, Place