The report of the Strategic Director, Place (Document “Q”) will be submitted to the Committee to provide an update on the work done by the Environmental Enforcement Team in relation to fly tipping and provides information on the number of fly tips reported to the Council and an analysis of relevant waste data.

(Armjad Ishaq/Stuart Russo – 01274 433682/437146)

The report of the Strategic Director, Place (Document “Q”) was submitted to the Committee to provide an update on the work carried out by the Environmental Enforcement Team in relation to fly tipping, including the number of incidents and relevant waste data analysis.

The report detailed the area of responsibility in the context of waste management and how the Enforcement Team and associated workforce was structured and located.  The report provided details of initiatives to raise awareness of recycling and to promote the bulky waste collection service.  It covered a number of activities undertaken throughout the year and how problems around waste were being addressed.

Investment in CCTV – the Environmental Enforcement Team was allocated funding to allow proactive targeting of fly tippers in hotspots to deter and detect offenders.  CCTV was also deployed to detect fly tipping on and around bonfire night, these included commercial dumping of toxic and hazardous waste which were all subject to investigation.

Capital funding had been allocated to remove waste and undertake works to defend land that was historically targeted for fly tipping.

A Police led initiative aimed at tackling vehicle crime named ‘Operation Steerside’ included multi agency collaboration to stop and search vehicles to check for compliance with the law.  This has assisted in identifying vehicles illegally carrying waste with notices to produce waste carriers licences and waste transfer notes being issued. 

In addition, the teams from Operation Steerside had worked together to seize vehicles involved in fly tipping.  Four of the five vehicles seized this year were crushed as they were of no commercial resale value or were not roadworthy.  Publicity was provided by local media receiving local and national coverage and encouragement from the public who welcomed the action being taken against environmental criminals.

The disposal of waste from cannabis farms had also contributed to the problem of fly tipping and a partnership approach with the Police was being explored to ensure that landlords disposed of the waste legally after Police had removed any evidence items from sites raided.  A statutory notice would be issued that obligated the landlord to provide waste transfer notes or receipts to show that the waste from any farm had been legally disposed of and not simply dumped as commercial waste.

As part of the funding given to the Council to aid Covid recovery, an Environmental Task Force would operate for a period of 18 months to respond to environmental quality issues, litter and fly tipping and would also be involved to improve environmental quality across the District.

Officers also confirmed that a ‘Caught on Camera’ facility was being investigated and the matter had been referred to the legal team to check compliance with GDPR.

Members were then given the opportunity to make comments and ask questions, the details of which and the responses given are as below:

Members asked how the decision was made where to deploy CCTV camera and were advised that information was acted upon from a number of sources e.g. officers, street cleansing and councillors and could only be deployed on a lamppost as it was needed as a power source.  There were four types of camera in use and testing was underway using mobile phone technology.  Officers were happy to receive proposals for more sites.

Members asked if there was any feedback on how well the cameras were capturing fly tipping incidents and what the source of the problem was, were people coming from outside the District for example.  Members said that more information would be beneficial to alleviate concern.

Members asked what happened to tyres recovered in Worth Valley and whether they were recycled.  Officers advised that they were stored and disposed of separately or recycled where possible.  They also stated that it was often more expensive to recycle and it was a government led process in charging for disposal.

A Member queried the placement and number of cameras in a particular area as there was a particular problem with littering.  Officers stated that there was a high turnover of staff but would be happy to discuss individual issues outside the meeting.

Fly tipping across the District amounted to small quantities and Members asked if it was possible to do something about it and whether the resources were available to tackle it.  Members also wanted to know whether queues were deterring the use of HWRC’s.  Officers advised that the reduced number of bays available had likely contributed to formation of queues and this could have impacted on fly-tipping.  Wardens encouraged residents to use the recycling centres and to make use of the bulky waste service.

The difficulty with tackling fly tipping was that evidence had to be completely secure and beyond doubt and it was difficult to identify where it was coming from.  There was a householder duty of care which could result in a fine if not using a registered company to dispose of waste but the origin of the waste had to be beyond doubt.  ‘cowboy’ operators were being targeted via social media to try and tackle the problem from another perspective.  Taking cash for bulky collections was just one of the methods being tried also.

A Member asked if working with companies who already worked with the Council to do joint enforcement work and were advised that it had been tried previously to tackle littler but the team feel that the service could do it better themselves.

The role and effectiveness of Wardens was briefly discussed with Officers stating the Environmental Task Force would add resource to encourage behaviour changes and be more proactive.  The team were looking at best practice and were due to attend the ‘Keep Britain Tidy’ conference to support their efforts and initiatives.  Communications work had been carried out in targeted areas for which a formal report would be drafted but the impact was difficult to measure in the transient private rental sector.

The amount charged for fines was discussed and Members asked how the money was used.  Officers advised that some went back into environmental work such as cameras.  However, fines went to the Ministry of Justice.  A report would be presented to show how and where any funds from fines had been re-invested.

Resolved –

That a report be presented annually to this Committee.

Action: Strategic Director, Place