(Epping Forest District Council) To receive a report from Environment and Neighbourhood Manager, Richard Gardiner, on the following matters:
1. Brief introduction on fly-tipping issues and enforcement.
2. Update on Cleaner Essex Group “Crime not to care” campaign.
3. Question and Answer – please see the updated Frequently Asked Questions page on the Council’s website at the link below:
http://www.eppingforestdc.gov.uk/residents/your-environment/crime-safety/fly-tipping
Minutes:
The Council’s Environment and Neighbourhoods Manager, R Gardiner, addressed the meeting and gave a brief introduction on fly-tipping issues and enforcement.
He reported that the trend for fly-tipping was up. In 2015/16 the Council had 1944 fly-tipping incidents, which increased to 2384 in 2016/17 and since April 2017 his team had already dealt with 1056, compared to 943 for the same period last year. This was despite more prosecutions, more fines and better publicity that included wider reporting in the local press. There were three groups of people that fly-tipped, which included:
1) residents who tipped close to where they lived, particularly on housing land, where the Council had its own bin stores;
2) those individuals that drove waste to another part of the district; and tipped it more remotely; and
3) roguish waste professionals, who took waste for profit.
Neighbourhoods recorded every fly-tipping incidence, investigated and evaluated what was required, and if there was any evidence of who had left the waste – to seek to prosecute. One problem was people who said they gave their waste to a ‘man in a van’ when asked to come in by the Council under caution. However, householders had a ‘duty of care’ to check the credentials of the waste carrier they used and that they were licensed by the Department of Environment. Waste carriers had to keep a record of each transaction and keep a ‘waste transfer note’, which had to be retained for two years. This ‘duty of care’ legislation was an important bit of law as it was very easy to fly-tip in the District, which had many quiet and rural roads and areas.
The Council had joined a campaign, the Cleaner Essex Group, a group of authorities across Essex that included Essex County Council, and had joined up with Keep Britain Tidy to produce two publicity leaflets on, ‘Crime not to Care’. It gave details of what people and businesses should be doing to keep their waste out of the hands of rogue traders, was designed to educate residents / businesses and the fines that were imposed. Residents and businesses must have kept records of the waste carrier used – this was the duty of ‘care’.
Neighbourhoods was producing a series of short films on social media, which was currently being finalised. This was not just a campaign, but a long term view and it was people’s responsibility to check – their duty of ‘care’. Therefore he hoped it would become socially unacceptable if the credentials of a waste carrier had not been checked.
R Gardiner also said that the ‘Frequently asked questions’ section on the fly-tipping page of the Councils’ website, had been updated and more information was available at the link below:
http://www.eppingforestdc.gov.uk/residents/your-environment/crime-safety/fly-tipping
Councillor R Gadsby asked if it was residents or businesses that fly-tipped most and that in the Upshire area fly-tipping was a constant problem. R Gardiner replied that he thought it was mostly residents mismanaging the correct disposal of their waste although probably a combination of everyone, even small businesses, but it was more likely to be professional rogue traders fly-tipping in rural areas, many of whom came out from London.
North Weald Parish Council Clerk S De Luca commented that she liked the campaign leaflet and that people should take their waste to the tip, and they used to take the waste to the Recycling Centre but this had been closed. Also if you had a Land Rover with a fixed wheel base you could not take your rubbish to the tip. An Ongar Parish Councillor said that rogue waste traders were only around because they knew their was business out there and that we had brought this upon ourselves. Councillor V Metcalfe replied that together with Councillor C C Pond, they had extracted a commitment from the ECC waste portfolio holder that it would monitor if there were increases in fly-tipping because of people having to drive further distances. Councillor C C Pond said that the problem had been exacerbated by the Chigwell and Waltham Abbey recycling centres stopping certain types of rubbish, particularly DIY rubbish. He had called this in and Councillor Walsh, ECC portfolio holder for waste had agreed to monitor the situation, but when the issue went back to committee in March, he reported that there had been no increase / discernible increase reported by the district councils. Yet R Gardiner had said the reverse. Councillor C C Pond continued that it was counterproductive to have to drive 25 miles, which was not sustainable or acceptable. He said he had forced a vote on this on 24 March 2017 but the vote went against us. It was unacceptable for the burden to shift from ECC and be transferred to the District Council and residents and was untenable. R Gardiner added that the increase in fly-tipping was happening before the closure of recycling centres but could also be the result of commercial waste being stopped at recycling centres and waste was expensive to dispose of correctly.