Agenda item

PRESENTATION ON FLY TIPPING

The Sub-Committee will receive a presentation on Fly Tipping - (responsibilities and functions)

Minutes:

Officers explained that the biggest issue in the Havering area was households leaving waste on the highway and clarified that this was still considered a flytip. These constituted 58% of all flytips and in the year from November 2015, there had been a total of 5,598 flytips in Havering. The worst affected wards were Heaton, Romford Town and Rainham & Wennington whilst the lowest number of flytips were recorded in Emerson Park and Hacton. It was noted that flytips in excess of a tipper load only constituted 3% of the total cleared. Large scale flytips were increasing in number however and officers felt that the Police should treat flytipping as a higher priority crime.

 

As regards enforcement action, some 4,835 investigations had been started and a total of 323 fixed penalty notices were issued. Reasons for flytipping varied but included there being a large transient population and people feeling there was a low chance of being caught, The correct disposal of waste was costly and complex for people and it was felt to be easy to flytip in the northern parts of the borough.

 

The Council had an enforcement team of 11 with officers covering two wards each. Leaflets re the correct disposal of waste were given to both households and businesses. A legal file would be compiled where sufficient evidence was available. Work was also undertaken with young people via Havering Sixth Form College and the Junior Citizen scheme.

 

Officers sought to undertake enforcement proactively with patrols at flytipping hotspots and the use of CCTV. It was hoped to introduce solar and wind powered CCTV and Havering would be the first Council in the UK to do this. Some 300-500 flytips were reported on the Council CRM system each month although not all of these were genuine flytips. The cost of clearing a large flytip of around 20 tonnes was around £500 and was paid from the Street Cleansing budget.

 

It was confirmed that it was planned to put cameras at the bottom of Sunnings Lane which was a known flytip location and also at Launders Lane. Two enforcement officers had conducted an exercise in Little Gerpins Lane in December and caught four flytippers who were now in the process of being prosecuted.

 

Other boroughs had many more enforcement officers than Havering (approximately 80 in Newham and 150 in Westminster) but significant numbers of flytipping prosecutions were now pending. Members felt it would be useful to publicise details of flytipping prosecutions although this could not be done until convictions had been obtained.

 

It was illegal to use CCTV to deal with the issue of dog fouling. Officers had powers under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 to tell residents where to put their waste. New legislation was also used by officers as far as possible and it was suggested that messages regarding flytipping could be put in Living and other local magazines.

 

It was emphasised that enforcement officers did not have Police powers but did as much as they could. Officers would ideally like to recruit further enforcement officers. Waste had to be kept inside a property until the day of collection but this was often difficult for people in flats without a communal waste collection facility.

 

Officers went through flytipped bags and, if name and address details were found, the people involved were invited for interview. Officers would send advisory letters in these instances. This could be followed up with a notice served under section 46 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990. A fixed penalty notice would then be issued. The Crime & Policing Act covering anti-social behaviour allowed £100 fixed penalty notices to be issued.

 

Only one prosecution and no fixed penalty notices had been given for dog mess but it was often difficult to identify the person committing the offence. The highest number of dog fouling incidents were in Gooshays, Mawneys and Romford Town wards. A new Cleaner Havering campaign focussing on dog fouling would be launched shortly.  Reports of dog fouling could be made by phone as well as on line.

 

A list of officers in the enforcement team would be supplied to Members. It was felt it would be useful if updates on enforcement matters could be given at future meetings of the Sub-Committee.