Agenda item
Scrutiny task group on Fly tipping
This task group was requested by the Scrutiny Members in response to communicated concerns from Brent residents regarding increased fly-tipping levels. The purpose of the task group was to analyse and understand the borough’s knowledge, behaviour and understanding of fly-tipping, and to review local fly-tipping policies and processes of the council and its partner’s.
Minutes:
Councillor Stopp introduced the report of the task group by stating that there was significant public concern about the issue and there was a need to rethink how the matter was dealt with. The implementation of the recommendations of the task group would not incur additional resources. He introduced Mr Chirag Gir as a member of the task group. Mr Gir explained that he was one of 400 Wembley residents who had raised with their local councillors the opportunity to work with different community groups in the area to improve the cleanliness of Wembley.
It was suggested that the recommendation to give the Cleaner Brent App further publicity could be actioned by adding a footnote to Council correspondence. It was pointed out that a lot of the recommendations involved Veolia and it was questioned whether Veolia would take on these suggestions. With regard to the collection of bulky waste, the view was put that it was important to provide an efficient collection service to avoid it being dumped. Reference was made to the people whose job it was to go out in the borough and it was asked whether they had a duty to report dumped waste. Questions were asked on how the suggested community clean-ups might work.
In response, Councillor Stopp felt that those people who through their jobs came across dumped rubbish had an obligation to report it back to the Council. He stated that one of the reasons for proposing community guardians was to provide support to people who might otherwise feel isolated when reporting dumped rubbish. Community groups might be empowered to take responsibility for getting rubbished cleared. A point was made that it was more difficult for people without a car to get their rubbish removed and that the report dealt more with clearing dumped items rather than looking at the causes for items being dumped.
Councillor Southwood (Lead Member for Environment) thanked the members of the task group for their work. She stated that there was nothing in the recommendations affecting Veolia that could not be implemented through the current contract the Council had with them. She supported the point made about language leading to a misunderstanding of what fly tipping was. Emphasis need to be placed on the illegality of dumping because not all items dumped was rubbish. She felt that none of the recommendations presented anything that was unachievable or undeliverable. She agreed that local people needed to be empowered to take action against illegal dumping. The Council was already in discussion with Veolia to provide a quicker service to landlords so that they did not resort to dumping items. Councillor Southwood supported the idea of producing a charter in which it could be made clear that anyone could contribute to making Brent a cleaner borough and it could include the message that the Council would adopt a zero tolerance to people found dumping items.
RESOLVED:
(i) that the recommendations of the scrutiny task group on fly tipping be approved and the development of an action plan across the council and partner organisations to take them forward be supported;
(ii) that a progress report against the recommendations be submitted to the Scrutiny Committee in 6 months time.
Supporting documents:
- Covering Report Fly-Tipping Task Group, item 8. PDF 161 KB
- Fly-Tipping Task Group Report FINAL, item 8. PDF 430 KB