Agenda item

To hear any deputations received from members of the public in accordance with Standing Order 67.

Members are asked to note that a deputation has been received from a local resident in relation to flytipping.

Members were asked to note that a deputation had been received from a local resident, Ms Sarah Archer, in relation to fly tipping and, unless otherwise indicated, members were asked to allow the speaker up to 5 minutes to present their deputation.

Ms Archer began her presentation by explaining that she was speaking on behalf of the residents of Brondesbury Villas who were concerned about flytipping and litter. She had met with some committee members and worked closely with Brent’s Waste Enforcement Team to raise this issue. In detailing the issues residents were experiencing, Ms Archer advised that Brondesbury Villas connected to Kilburn High Road and experienced a lot of waste from there. The location had two shops and a fruit stall which all attracted a lot of waste and litter.

She drew members attention to Brent’s Street Cleaning Programme which used a grading system from A to D, with A being extremely clean and D being heavily littered, and advised that Brent’s aim as outlined on the website was to keep streets to a minimum standard of at least B, which was mostly free from litter except for a few items. In considering the level of litter and waste on Brondesbury Villas, she advised that she would grade it a D, with litter in the gutters amassing every two weeks. As such, she was addressing the Committee with the aim of discussing how Brent could move to a place where the street cleaning programme brought more streets in line with their aim of a grade B.

In addition to the litter amassing on the streets from commercial businesses, she highlighted flooding as a result of clogged drains from litter and an increase in fast food containers being littered where the Electric Vehicle Charging Points were used. As there were no residential bins, Electric Vehicle owners were generating a lot of litter, and, although Veolia had started to place bin bags around trees and lampposts near Charging Point locations, these were often full quickly and she did not feel this was a long-term approach. In comparison, when she had visited the borough of Camden, she had noticed Enforcement Officers on the streets and residential bins available, as well as regular pavement washes which was not included in Brent’s contract with Veolia.

Further adding to the condition of the street was ‘charitable tipping’, which she described as residents taking waste such as electrical goods, ironing boards and books out of their home and placing them on the public pavement for others to take instead of taking them to a charity shop or skip. When she had queried this, Waste Enforcement had confirmed that this type of behaviour met the legal threshold to be defined as a fly tip. In 2024, Brondesbury Villas had 63 incidents of this, increasing to 527 in 2025.

In summing up, she hoped the Committee would work with residents, the Waste Enforcement Team, and relevant contractors, to address the issues raised by residents living in Brondesbury Villas and more broadly improve the streets in Brent as a whole.

The Chair permitted members to asked some brief questions of the resident, with the following queries and responses made:

• The Committee asked whether there were particular locations of the road that the issue was particularly acute or any patterns that residents had noticed. Ms Archer advised that tipping was consistent throughout the road, and rubbish and littering was more prevalent closer to Kilburn High Road. There was a 10 metre area where all shop fronts on Kilburn High Road were swept daily, with waste evident just outside of that 10 metre area. Rubbish also was worse in the areas where the Electric Vehicle Charging Points and garages were.

• Councillor L. Smith advised that, as a ward councillor for that area, she had asked for additional patrols in the West end and whether a mobile camera could be placed there some of the time. 

• The Committee asked whether residents in Brondesbury Villas were making use of the Fix My Street app to report fly tips and waste and what level of response they received. Ms Archer confirmed that residents did use the app to report waste and it was removed swiftly, which she felt contributed to the issue because the perpetrators knew that the waste would be removed immediately, reinforcing that behaviour.

As no further issues were raised, the Chair thanked Ms Archer for her presentation and answering the Committees questions and advised that officers may address some of her comments during the discussion on fly tipping and littering in Brent.