To receive questions in accordance with the provisions of Council Procedure Rules 12.2 and 12.4 which require a Member to give at least 3 working days’ notice, in writing, of the question to the Chief Executive.
Minutes:
Councillor Whitaker had submitted two questions for Councillor Brookes, portfolio holder for Environmental Services, regarding fly tipping. Councillor Brookes was not in attendance at the meeting due to the COVID measures. He had prepared answers to Councillor Whitaker’s questions, which Councillor Dowding read out on his behalf.
The first question was:
1) Fly Tipping in certain back streets in the West End of Morecambe is getting worse in and residents are getting frustrated and angry, especially in repetitive hot spots. What can the Council do realistically to address this ongoing blight on our community?
Councillor Brookes’ reply was:-
The recent data for incidents in Harbour Ward doesn’t appear to support the view that fly tipping is getting worse, certainly when comparing this year to last year:
Quarter 1 (Apr-Jun) 2020: 226 cases
2021: 75
Quarter 2 (Jul-Sep) 2020: 141
2021: 83
Having said that, all incidences of fly-tipping are unacceptable, and the Council is continuing to work on prevention, as well as providing a dedicated removal service, and taking enforcement action where there is sufficient evidence to do so.
Fly-tipping happens for a number of reasons, from confusion or carelessness about when and where to present domestic waste at one end of the scale, to cynical organised crime by rogue waste carriers at the other end. As such there is no one-size-fits-all solution and a variety of tactics need to be employed to tackle it.
Officers have developed a ward-specific plan for Harbour Ward with a large number of actions, some of which have been implemented, with others to follow over the short to medium term. Some examples:
Seagull bags have been delivered to households with bagged collections, including door-knocking to check that residents were aware of their bin day and where to present waste (many were not).
Increased capacity communal recycling facilities have been provided (albeit much later than planned due to slow delivery from suppliers) to reduce problems with side waste at collection points.
In the last couple of months Will Griffith and I met with local and national Freegle representatives to discuss proven ways of encouraging re-use of unwanted items, and we hope to be able to trial live swapping events next year. Panels promoting the Freegle app will soon be appearing on some of our bin wagons.
We also attended a Keep Britain Tidy webinar on fly-tipping, highlighting a programme of evidence-based interventions KBT developed and tested in the London Borough of Newham. KBT is offering to deliver this programme with a limited number of other councils around the country, and we are pursuing bringing this to Lancaster district, with a focus on hotspots in Morecambe. In the meantime we have joined the Keep Britain Tidy Network which gives us access to resources, learning events, best practice guidance etc.
Councillor Whitaker asked for his thanks to be recorded to officers who were dealing with fly tipping for their hard work. He commented that partnership work with landlords might be useful in the fight against fly tipping to help educate tenants.
Councillor Whitaker’s second question was:
What is an acceptable time scale for the removal of fly-tipping when a member of the public reports it?
Councillor Brookes’ reply was:-
The Council’s corporate Service Level Agreement for removal of fly-tipping is 5 working days. This is the timescale that the budgeted level of resource is designed to achieve in normal circumstances. We don’t have any verified data on response times, but officers assure me that a high percentage of fly-tips are collected same-day as we have dedicated crews in Morecambe and Lancaster solely assigned to fly-tipping.
I’m sure that there will be isolated occasions where items do get missed. Residents can help prevent this by being as specific as possible about the location and type of material when reporting a fly-tip.
I’m also aware that there are a very small number of incidents where specialist access equipment is required to safely remove fly-tipped material, and these can take some time to resolve.